My Big Brother
by La Kookie
Summary: New to vampire life, a girl is alone. She doesn't dare go near her family, for fear of hurting or scaring them. She even scares herself! Unsure of what to do,she follows random trails and hunts when needed...alone. But that all changes one day...
1. Preface

My Big Brother

**Author's note: okay, this is an idea I had (and my first fanfic!!), but like in Stephenie's books, this is only the preface. So, in my story, this is a few chapters in, and probably won't happen until then.**

**Enjoy!!**

**Disclaimer: D.O.I (Don't Own It!!)**

Chapter 1

(Well, the Preface, actually. : )

I ran as fast as I could to the noise. I knew that noise; I _loved_ that noise, and it was perhaps the happiest, most care-free sound I had heard since I came to be this way. I kept running, probably faster than I ever have before. Then, I found it.

It was beautiful. It was in a perfectly round, open…meadow. The meadow had delicate, little wildflowers in varying shades of violet, white, and yellow, with soft grass, swaying in the wind. It was--as usual in this new area--really cloudy, but I could tell that if the sun was shining, it would be one of the most heavenly places on earth. I crossed the meadow and came to what I was looking for.

It was a small stream. I don't know why, but when I heard the bubbly laugh of the stream as it flowed quickly over smooth rocks, and a tiny waterfall over a fallen log, I became anxious and had wanted so suddenly to find it. (It probably had to do with just how bored and alone I was.) Well, I found it!

But looking at the stream, on it's hands and knees, was another creature that looked totally at peace. Sensing my presence in the meadow, he looked up. I tried as well as I could to control my urge to gasp, but it looked like he saw through my attempt; I think that he was one of _my_ kind!

"Can I help you?" He asked in a quiet--but almost territorial--voice.

"Um…uh-I just…." I knew, even as young as I was in this life, that it was probably never a good idea to encroach on another…one of…_my kind's_ territory. And even though I tried hard to hide it, it looked like he probably saw the discomfort and almost fear in my voice, and his expression softened.

"Uh.…I was just passing through. Sorry to disturb you; I'll get going, now." I was disappointed; I wanted to watch the steam go by as he was just doing. But as I turned to leave, he said something rather surprising for…one of _my kind_.

"No, that's fine. Can I offer you any help with something you might need?"

I turned back around to look at him, and he was standing, with a hand outstretched to me. "My name is Edward."

I timidly and carefully took his hand, shook it, and said, smiling,

"Courtney."

He gently smiled in return.

**OK!! Tell me what you think so far; like, if I should continue this, if you hate it, or any ideas that you might have to help me continue. I have (in my opinion) some pretty cute ideas, but there's only so many that I've got!**

**Thanks!**

**ELS**


	2. Ch1 Summer Time

**Author's note: Hi! Again, I'll just say that I'm excited for hearing reviews and reactions to this story-hopefully, they'll be good! Also, in case there's any confusion concerning Bella and Edward, I'll just say that…we'll get there. (Don't worry; they aren't going anywhere, but it might be a while till we even **_**meet**_** Bella. (Give the rest of the story a chance; we don't have that much longer till we meet Edward!!) ) **

**Here's the very beginning!! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Once again, D.O.I. (DON'T OWN IT!!….Don't depress me further by making me admit it!)**

Chapter 1

Summer Time

"Mom! Where is the cream cheese?" I yelled, rummaging through the fridge. My mother was upstairs, possibly taking a nap, but it had been a few hours since then, and I wasn't really sure as to what she was doing now.

I was kind of rushed; I was watching "Ghost Hunters", or some people called it "TAPS". "TAPS" stood for "Trans-Atlantic Paranormal Society", or something like that. It was one of my favorite shows, but I referred to it simply as "Ghost Hunters".

Like I said, I was fairly frantic. But only because this was a marathon with new episodes, and I didn't want to miss a thing. The commercials had barely started when my stomach growled. Realizing that I was hungry, I had ran to the kitchen in 8 seconds flat and had already decided on a bagel. I knew that the commercials seemed to drag on, but it always seems like when you're rushing to beat them, you kind of end up loosing.

"Mom!!" I had the bagel out and ready to go now, I just needed the cream cheese, and I just couldn't find it! "I need the-"

"Cool your jets, Courtney!!" She called. Yeah, she was probably still asleep. "It's in the door of the fridge!"

Of course! I felt like a total idiot; it was almost always there. I grabbed it, had it open, and had the knife in the container even before I was over to my waiting bagel.

"Thanks, mom!"

I realized that I had beat my personal record for quickest food-grabbing after about 45 seconds of being in the kitchen preparing my "meal". I was surprised at myself.

I didn't watch T. V. a lot, but when I did, I really got into it. It reminded me of this one time, when I was baby-sitting these kids. They were cute, and I had a good time with them, but once, they had wanted to watch a Barbie movie, so I put it on for them. Thinking that it was probably a waste of my time to pretend to sit and watch with them a BARBIE MOVIE of all things ("Barbie Island Princess" to be exact), I tidied up a little bit here and there. After I got kind of tired, I sat with them anyways only to find out that about twenty minutes later, I was the only one watching! I felt like a total loser….But I try not to dwell on that memory.

Finally, the commercials were over. As the program started up again, I realized I had eaten about half of my bagel already, and was kind of tired from running through the kitchen, and having nothing to drink. But there was no way I was about to get up again. My bagel forgotten, I watched as Jay and Dave Tango heard a noise….it was dead silent as they listened more….they heard more clanking metal.

See?! Do you see what happens when I watch stuff like this?! It's so intense!!!!

After watching them and other teams get what information they could and start to "pack it up for the night", more commercials came. I got a glass of milk, and finished the rest of my bagel. I knew I didn't have much longer until it came back on again, but I ran to the kitchen anyway, to throw away the paper towel I had (to hold the bagel…I didn't want to get a plate out and all) and to quickly rinse out the glass and put it in the dish washer.

As I walked back into the living room, I heard it come back on. 'Wow', I thought. 'What great timing!' Then I sat down to watch the rest.

Eventually, the 'mini-marathon' was over. Glancing at the clock, I saw it was eleven-thirty. It was a good thing that school got out last week, because, already, my time for being awake and asleep were slowly starting to reverse themselves.

I started up towards my room to get ready for bed.

Our house was pretty medium-sized. It had two floors to it, and a two-door garage. On the bottom floor, there was the kitchen, dining room, front room, and living room. If you entered through the front door, you would find yourself in the front room, containing some nice furniture and a baby grand piano my mom got for Christmas. On your right, would be the coat closet, then after that, the stairs going to the second floor.

There was a big opening from the front room which opened up to the dining room which-on your left-was conjoined with the kitchen, by a large counter. (Kind of complicated, huh?) A little distance from the dining room table was the back door. If you turned right from the front room and went down three little stairs, that was basically the family room, where I had just finished watching T. V. If you turned right again, you would find a small laundry room holding the washer and dryer, and next to that, a door leading to the garage.

Going up the stairs, I went down the hall just a little bit, and turned right to go into my room.

The second floor of my house contained all of the bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Going up the stairs and through the hall, on your first right would be my room. After that, my brother's old room, and then my sister's old room. (They were guest rooms, now.) At the very end of the hall, was a small linen closet. Then, across the hall from my sister's room was my parents' room. They had a master bedroom, along with their own bathroom. Next to their room, and across the hall from my room was the main bathroom. Since my siblings were gone now, and my parents had their own, I liked to call that bathroom mine.

My house might sound kind of small, but all of the rooms are actually quite spacious, making it seem a little bigger.

I went into my room and retrieved some clothes for a shower from my dresser. My room was nothing special; it had white walls with tan carpet and my dresser and bed frame were made from a light wood with delicate carvings in it. It seemed boring, but it's actually quite elegant-looking…for me, anyways!

I crossed the hall into "my bathroom", and turned on the water.

In my family there was me, my mom and dad, and my older brother and sister. My mom and dad's name were Ann and Jack Thompson.

Both my sister and my brother were in college now. My sister, Taylor (her real name is Morgan Taylor Thompson, but she goes by Taylor), was the oldest; she is going to get married this July, and is almost finished with her schooling. She now has a nurse's degree.

My brother, Logan Brady Thompson, is about two years younger than Taylor and has just finished one and a half years of college. He's thinking about majoring in something with computers.

My full name is Courtney Lynn Thompson. I am about four, almost five years younger than Logan, and I have just graduated from my sophomore year of high school. I turned sixteen last January.

I finished rinsing out the conditioner in my hair, turned off the water, then stepped out of the shower and dressed quickly. I looked in the mirror, studying my face. I had nice brown eyes and brown hair that went a few inches below my shoulders. I was also pretty tall; about 5'7". I was coming up on 5'8". I had slightly tan skin, and as for my figure, well…I didn't have as many curves as some of my friends, but if it counts for anything I was also kind of muscular. I worked at a warehouse that operated kind of like a post office, and I handled a lot of heavy boxes sometimes.

I was kind of tired, and I knew that it was definitely past eleven thirty, so instead of waking up my mom and dad by using the blow-dryer, I decided to just braid my hair. After that, I brushed my teeth and got in bed.

In bed, I thought about what I needed to do tomorrow.

It was Tuesday, so I had to go to work at 10:30. I worked minimum wage, but for me, that was pretty good. I needed money, and for what I was paid, I was doing ok.

One hour later, it was almost one o' clock. I hated when this happened! I had a slight sleeping disorder; it took forever for me to get to sleep, and some nights I would have to get by on an average of four hours of sleep.

Frustrated, I took out the iPod I got for my birthday, set it to shuffle, and relaxed.

I was at work, now. It was unusually cloudy for this time of year-we had moved to St. George, Utah about three years ago, and I was expecting it to stay sunny and bright. But the wind was blowing, and nasty storm clouds rolled by swiftly over head. As I searched the sky, it didn't look that was going to change anytime soon.

Deciding to get going on my day, I checked in, and got to work.

As I was working, something felt off. I paused. Now that I was paying attention to the feeling, it got stronger, and I realized what the feeling was. It felt like…someone was…_watching_ me.

I got funny feelings like this sometimes, and they went away after like, the first three seconds I had felt them. Usually because I looked up and caught whoever was staring at me. But as I looked up, the feeling didn't go away…it got _stronger. _

I felt a slight breeze beside me, and as I spun around I was knocked out cold.

I jerked upright in my bed right as I was knocked out in my dream, and I realized that I was in a cold sweat.

"Whoa, Courtney." I said to myself. "Way to over react to a scary dream!"

This was probably just the after-math of watching "Ghost Hunters" right before bed.

Glancing at my digital clock, I saw that it was 9:30. Hurriedly, I got out of bed and began getting ready for the day. But as I looked outside, I noticed that it was cloudy outside…almost as cloudy as it was in my dream.

"De ja vu" is a funny feeling. As I looked outside, I had a sense of de ja vu begin to set in. Everything this morning began to blur together now.

It was a sickening de ja vu, and as I was having my mom drive me to work (I had taken driver's ed, but I didn't have a license quite yet), my hands started to shake.

**Author's note: ooh! It's getting intense for me! The next two chapters are going to be…the "turning point" for Courtney. (Wink, wink, nod, nod. "Turning point", get it?!) Okay, I'll shut up now, and try to update soon. **

**Tell me what you think, _please_!!**

**ELS**


	3. And So It Begins

**Author's note: ok, I've had a few typos and stuff, so sorry about that. I have to type these kind of fast because I have finals coming up at my school. (Although, me being me, I'll probably never study for them anyways. XP )**

**Disclaimer: D. O. I.**

Chapter 2

And So It Begins

Before my mom drove off, she said, "Courtney, I have to run a few errands today, so if you need me, just give me a call." I could only nod. I didn't even look at her. I was still feeling really uneasy.

"Courtney?" This time I had to look at her.

"Honey, are you okay?" She managed to snap me out of it long enough for me to realize that I was being a total wuss about a BAD DREAM!! I looked at her, smiled, and said,

"Yeah, sorry….Just zoned out pretty bad there." She rolled her eyes, but laughed and asked sarcastically,

"Courtney, how much sleep did you get last night?"

"About 7, maybe 8 hours." In all honesty, I only had about 6. I managed to fall asleep sometime around three. She just sat there, studying my face, though. Finally she said,

"Well, if you need anything, just call me."

"Okay, mom." Then I climbed out of the car.

The de ja vu feeling was still there, but not as strong as before.

It reminded me of two killings that had been reported in the last month, one right after the other. I knew it was silly to worry about that, they didn't even happen here in St. George, but it made me think of the killing closest to my town, the second one. It was a seventeen year old boy walking home from a basketball game. Supposedly, he was kidnapped, then found dead only hours later. Both of the people that were killed (I didn't know much about the first murder-except for this) were found dead at least a day after they went missing.

To keep the de ja vu from getting strong again, I didn't look anywhere except for the building that I was headed towards-especially not up. Once inside, I got going. Then, that stupid feeling (like someone watching me) came back!!!

I was only checking things off of some sort of list, and had to move one box to a different pile. I hurriedly set the box down and looked around me. Suddenly, there was a breeze, but I didn't turn around, in hopes that this wasn't a re-run of the dream. Then, someone threw their arms around me from behind, picked me up, and spun me around. Normally, I don't freak out over things like this.

For example, if someone sees a spider or a mouse, I always end up being the one that kills the spider-or gets rid of the mouse. Hopefully I'm the first one to spot it, too. The reason for this being…well…I usually don't freak out in situations like that, but when other people start to freak, that's when I start to loose my cool just a little….I could really do with out the audiences.

The memory of my bad dream was so fresh in my mind, and the de ja vu was creeping me out so much, that I couldn't help but let loose a small squeal as I was still being spun around. Finally, I was set down.

I spun around to find myself face to face with my best friend Beth.

Beth and I had known each other since sixth grade. We didn't become friends until seventh grade, and by then we were inseparable. We ditched a couple classes throughout school, got each other out of tight spots, things like that. She was outgoing, but I was the one to always reel her back down to earth somehow.

Beth (her real name was Bethany, but she didn't really like to be called that, if you catch my drift) was a cute girl. She was skinny like I was, had short blond hair, fair skin, and she was about my height; only like an inch shorter than I was.

She was also pretty tough, in the way that if you insulted or said something bad about one of her friends, she wasn't afraid to speak up and defend them. She was cool (liked by a lot of guys and totally oblivious to it, I might add) and didn't go looking for trouble. But in some cases, it almost came to a fist fight between her and some snobs or some stubborn (and apparently extremely stupid) kids. The only thing to really end it was when I stepped in and sided with Beth. I was usually the quiet one of us, but people saw me and Beth play-fight sometimes, and it didn't look like they wanted both of us coming at them, and at the same time, too.

"Beth!" I gasped , and sank to the ground, breathless.

"Courtney!!" She giggled. I had no idea why she was laughing so hard. "I actually just scared you!"

Oh. That's why. Yeah, she had always tried to startle me sometimes, but could never quite get me at the right time. (I was also very good at hiding my surprise.) And every now and then-even without meaning to- I would end up scaring her.

(I couldn't help myself! She could take me out in one easy move-of course without me seeing-and scaring her was the only revenge I could get! (Black mail worked, too, but I'm a sucker for puppy pouts, and that's what started us play-fighting, again.) That was also when I found that I could be pretty silent and sneaky sometimes!!)

But we did that kind of stuff almost two weeks ago-in school. I had missed her so much since then!

By this time, Beth was still laughing her head off, and I was on my butt, glaring at her from my position on the floor. A few short moments passed us and Beth had calmed herself down enough to help me up from the ground. I dusted myself off, and not 2 mili-seconds later she had thrown her arms around me again, but this time in a tight hug that stayed firmly planted on the ground, and not spinning out of control.

"How's it going, Beth?" I asked Beth; she was already forgiven.

"Fine…I was so bored, so I had my sister drive me here. How are you doing, so far?" Then she released me. (We had ended up taking driver's ed together, but like me, she didn't have her license yet.)

"I'm good." I then picked up my check list. "How long are you going to stay?"

"I can probably have lunch with you, but then I'll have to go."

"Oh, okay. I was almost finished with this list, and if I get it done early, maybe we can have some spare time." I looked at my watch. It was already 11:47, and my lunch break was at 12:30. Since I usually didn't eat anything , we'd have a lot of free time-especially if we got done early.

We did get done early, but only by about 10 minutes. I would run off labels and names, but sometimes Beth couldn't find it, or didn't know where to look for the tags, and we would end up laughing; sometimes for a good, solid five minutes.

Sitting under a tree at a park across the street from my work, I got out my iPod and we listened to random songs. Some songs would remind us of things, and we would reminisce about old stories and old memories, old people, things like that. One in particular was "Mambo #5" by Lou Vega, or something like that. We were in color guard together one year, and it reminded us of sitting outside the band door early in the mornings after practice. Sometimes the band practice went longer than color guard (and since the flag closet was in the bad room, we had to wait for band practice to be over, too), so we listened to random songs, one being "Mambo # 5" and then we would sing to it.

I let the song play as we laughed again at the memory of just the _looks_ we would get from some people!

"They probably thought-" she broke off into another peal of laughter. I was already laughing too hard to talk.

"-that we were…_nuts_!" I eventually finished for her. I laughed harder as she just nodded her head, laughed even _harder_, and fell over. Seeing her fall over made me laugh harder, still. (With me, laughing is almost contagious, so it's embarrassingly easy to make me laugh--just seeing some random person laugh can make me crack a huge grin!)

We went through some more songs, singing softly to the ones that used to make us sad, and laughed more at the memories the other ones brought. When I looked at the clock on my iPod, I was instantly saddened; it said 1:33, meaning my lunch break was over.

Beth, noticing my stunned silence, asked

"Courtney, what's wrong?" I pointed to the screen and mumbled,

"My lunch break is over." That seemed to depress her, too. We didn't see much of each other over the summers, and I was really starting to miss these times I had with her.

Beth, possibly reading my mind as she sometimes did, gave me a huge hug and said,

"Hey, call me when you get home, and maybe we could hang out again!"

She tried to say this brightly, but it was my turn to read her mind; she was just as depressed as I was--if not more. So, I hugged her back and said,

"Thanks, Beth. We really should." I didn't really know what to say after that. I could feel myself get more and more depressed.

OOOOOOO

Before we knew it, we were in front of my work building, and her sister had pulled up in their red car. I sighed as I turned to hug Beth….I couldn't be sure, but I think that she also had the feeling I had…like we probably wouldn't see each other very soon, and couldn't really count on it anytime after that. I gave her a huge hug and she returned it. I suddenly wanted to say something to her to let her know how much I loved being her friend, and how glad I was that she was mine, but I didn't want to say anything mushy; I would feel stupid, and--for goodness sake!--her big sister was right there!

As I backed away, I saw the same awkwardness in her eyes, and it looked like she saw it in mine, too; so we laughed again, hugged once more, and then she got in her car.

"Bye, Courtney!" She said, waving.

"Bye, Beth!" I called as her sister drove off. I watched as they drove away, and it felt as the farther they got, the more my "happiness level" went down. I hoped that my instinct would be wrong, and I could see Beth again, and soon!

Then, a gust of wind started to blow. Shivering, I turned around to go back to work. I was wondering if it was going to rain so I looked up…and stopped dead in my tracks.

It was the exact same forecast in my dream.

The next wave of de ja vu was so powerful, that I almost sprinted till I got inside of my building. As I got inside, I was informed that a new "batch" of packages had arrived, and I only had to organize them and then double check that they were there. I went to the garage part of the building and got going, still extremely paranoid. The door to the garage--where the trucks dropped their loads off--was still open, so it was slightly breezy.

I had a whole other wave of de ja vu, and my mind instantly thought about the killings, sending chills down my spine.

I then decided that it was probably in my best interests not to freak myself out again, and focused on organizing the boxes.

Soon, I got that feeling again…the feeling like someone was watching me. For the second time today, I stopped dead in my tracks, and then I looked out the garage door.

It was starting to get dim outside; the clouds were still in the sky, but the sun was going down in the west-the sky almost already a dark blue! Could it really be that late?! Had I been working for that long!?!

As I continued looking outside, the feeling started to fade. Even though it was fading, I was more alert than ever-my heart picking up speed and pumping the adrenaline into my veins. I continued what I was doing. I got to about three boxes later, when the feeling came back.

This time, I completely dropped my box and looked out the garage door; this was getting way out of hand!! The sky was almost black now. As I stared at the almost-blackness, I got the most powerful feeling of de ja vu and fear I may ever get….Still watching the darkness, I came to a conclusion. Whoever--no, scratch that--_whatever_ was watching me…wasn't…_human_. And I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about the rest of this evening.

I glanced at a clock. I had only about a half an hour until I could go home, but I didn't care; I was going to move this last box, perhaps one more, and then go home.

As I reached for the second box, a breeze picked up. I could hear the trees rustling. But then, exactly like in my dream--almost as if I was having a direct flash back--

I felt a slight breeze beside me, and as I spun around I was knocked out cold.

_ooooooooo_

I woke up, what seemed only a few seconds later, and sensed that I was bleeding somewhere. Out of nowhere, I felt this horrible, searing pain in my right shoulder. I realized as it started to spread that it felt like I was _burning_! Like fire!! I tried not to scream, but I couldn't stop the moans.

If you've ever been burned from an oven, or scalded your tongue on hot chocolate, then you'll kind of know what I'm talking about. The only difference was that this burning pain was multiplied by at least ten times, it was burning me from the inside, and was starting to spread.

I heard a small scuffling noise, and then a tiny growl, almost a moan or whimper. That's when I started screaming from the pain-I just couldn't contain it. And as I screamed, I was picked up. It almost felt like I was flying--I didn't seem to touch the ground, but I knew I was moving, and fast. But, as quickly as I was picked up, I was set down again.

I kept screaming, but through it, I could hear a voice. It was quick and very quiet, but it sounded sad. I could be wrong--in fact, I wouldn't doubt it if I was--but it sounded as if the voice said,

"I'm so sorry." Then it was gone, and I had the feeling that I was alone.

I was in so much pain, now! The fire was slowly, excruciatingly spreading. Along with the pain intensifying, my screams were, too.

I know that this is morbid to say, but I hope that I'm dying. Death…_anything_ is better than the torture I am enduring now.

**Author's note: wow! This is getting intense for me! Is it doing that for you, too? I hope you like it so far!! Last time I checked, I had only two reviews, but reading them made me feel so special! Tell me what you think!! (Also, sorry again for the typos, I proofread the first chapter and the preface, but I guess I didn't catch them. I'll try not to mess up so much!)**

**LOVE YOU!!!**

**ELS**


	4. Questions And Answers I Didn't Want

**Author's note: okay! Here it is! Chapter three!! Sorry that I haven't been able to update this for a little bit; I have been super busy (meaning my family has been dragging me everywhere) and when I can finally sit down to write these...well, I'm the world's slowest typer, no joke! Also, I think I used a quote from New Moon. See if you can spot it!**

**(Oh, yea, there were some questions dealing with whether or not this is an Edward and Bella story. To that, I must answer: heck yes! Don't worry about those two; this is only a little sister that I ended up writing about-we're just not to the Cullens yet. As soon as we get there, I've got some fun ideas for Bella, Edward, and Courtney (along with the rest of the Cullens) to do together. Hopefully you like it!!) **

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: D. O. I., or any of the songs in here, okay?!**

Chapter 3

Questions And Answers I Didn't Want

Through all the screaming, I saw the sun rise again. (I could only catch glimpses of it, the rest of my time here on the ground was a blur.) It seemed to sail across the sky and set again. It looked to me like it did that once more, but I had no idea. It also might have rained, but my vision would blur every now and then, and I just couldn't tell! I was in pain; basically burning to death, but the whole "death" part just wouldn't come!! All I could do was scream, gasp for air, scream some more, and then after a while, I didn't even have the energy to scream.

The pain was energy-consuming; it made me tense up, but that was almost worse than just letting it pull me under, so I would relax again. After just a few seconds of relaxing, the pain would intensify again, making me squirm around and then just tense up again. It would make you really tired. Sometimes, it would get so bad that I would almost pass out, but not quite. I knew I was still conscious; I just couldn't move, couldn't--and probably wouldn't--even respond to anything.

Eventually I could feel the steady throb of my heart as if it was shaking my whole body with it, and the pain worsened. I could tell that the fire was reaching my heart now, because no matter how tired I was, I screamed louder than I had before and the pain was worse than ever before. I had the feeling now that this was coming to an end, and was grateful. Finally, the torture would be over! I stole a glance up at the sun…well, it was setting again so I couldn't really see it-but still! My heart beat harder, hurting all the more, slowed it's pace, and then…

Stopped altogether. I closed my eyes, and passed out for good.

OOOOOOOOOOO

I opened my eyes only seconds later expecting heaven, or…_something_. But as I looked around, I noticed that it was the same forest area I had been in for the last…two days? Was it _three_ days?! Wow!….Well, at least the "torture" was over. As I still lay there, I decided to not lay on the ground like I had been for the last few days, so I stretched--it felt nice--and sat up. Looking around me, I gathered that I was in a forest setting, surrounded by a lot of trees. It looked like I was in some sort of National Park.

I got up to see where I was. Then I noticed that I had a lot of dry mud on me-it was under my nails and in my hair. So it _did_ rain.

The wind started to blow then, and I caught a small whiff of something…really good! My instincts were yelling at me to take it! Attack, kill,…and…_drink_? Weird, but I was going to do what I had to get it! I looked around me, searching for it. That's when I looked down at my shirt. I was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a light blue shirt with a black zip-up jacket. My jeans, other than covered in dirt, were splattered with just a tiny amount of blood. But the thing that caught my attention was my shirt; it was ripped clear through the jacket to expose my right shoulder. My shoulder, which used to be a light tan from spending summers swimming, and being in the sun, was now very pale-almost white. In fact, I _was_ white! As I continued to look at my shoulder, I smelled the dried blood on my shoulder, and leaned closer.

It smelled amazing! I was about to basically eat my shirt, I wanted the stuff so bad, but something stopped me.

Then I remembered the pain that I had gone through, and stopped breathing.

Was I a…_vampire_? The only logical way to really explain this was to come to that conclusion. The signs were all there; I had been bitten, I wanted blood, and I was very pale. I didn't really know what being pale had to do with being a vampire, but a voice in the back of my mind said that now, I probably at least looked dead.

"This sucks!" I said softly. I realized that my voice was even different. It had a nice tone to it; it almost sounded like singing….Weird!

The wind blew again, very hard this time, and after a little bit, I caught another whiff of something good. No, it was MUCH better than good!

Forgetting all that I had just thought about, I ran to it.

It was amazing how fast I ran! In fact, I almost scared myself with how fast I was going. I darted past trees, jumped over any obstacles in my way. "Probably another 'vampire thing' ", I thought sarcastically, but then focused on the scent.

Suddenly, I saw a clearing up ahead and stopped. There was a man chopping wood in the back of some sort of building. It looked like a big house, but I guessed that it was probably some sort of hotel. Kind of like in Yellow Stone, Wyoming. Why he was chopping wood was a total mystery to me, but I didn't care. It was his blood I was after!

Choosing this time to act, I ran over to him. I basically pounced on him, but he couldn't see-I was too fast. Before he could make a noise, I bit into his neck and drank.

It was amazing! It was better than anything else I've ever tasted! I can't even _begin_ to describe it-words aren't enough!

After just a little bit, he…didn't have any more…blood. I looked down at what I had just done. Wait; what _had_ I just done?!

What kind of place _was_ this?! How could I have done what I just did?

Before I could attack anyone else, I picked him up and moved him deep into the forest. I don't know why-something just told me to at least _move_ the body if I couldn't bury him properly.

I was about to turn and go home, but stopped myself. If this was how I reacted to this guy, maybe my family wasn't safe with me there.

So then, I ran as far as I could from the man and my town, praying that my family would be safe-and that, somehow, they would understand. My sense of direction is really bad, but it seemed to me like I was going north, so I continued.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I wasn't keeping track of how much time had passed, but it seemed like hours. Not too long, though only about 3 hours, maybe.

I stopped for a while, and smelled some thing good again. Not as good, but it was still appetizing! I ran until I found it, then drank from it. When I was done, I saw that it was a deer! I decided then, that I just had to stay away from towns, and away from all people.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Almost six months had passed, and I was doing well with feeding off of animals. They weren't as good as humans, but they worked just as well. In fact, I was working on restraining myself. I had come across their scents, and I was able to resist the urge to hunt and then kill them.

Today, I was just walking through a really cloudy forest. It was very cool in this area.. The wind picked up, and like many different times, I smelled something and wanted to find out what it was. I took off running to it. The smell I was "tracking" wasn't a good one, but it seemed to originate somewhere close.

I finally slowed down, and looked around. I saw that I was on some sort of beach. And even here, the sky was still cloudy! The scent forgotten, I looked around for a place to sit, and decided to sit under a tree along the forests' edge. When I sat down, I listened for approaching noises. I don't want to attack anyone else.

I sat in silence, watching the waves. I moved my hands to rest in my lap, and as I did, I felt something shift in my pocket. I reached in to see what it was and took it out.

My iPod! It was a little dented here and there, but it was still my iPod!! Finding my iPod triggered lots of things I had forgotten about.

Memories of being with Beth singing, listening, and talking about songs and things of the past came flooding back to me, and I broke down crying. After just a little bit, I realized that I wasn't shedding any tears. Hmm…that's new; must be a "vampire thing" too.

Since the "change" (that's what I had decided to name the time when I went through all the pain), I had kind of forgotten some small things. I knew for sure that I loved my iPod, and the music on it; I had just kind of forgotten some of the songs I had.

Curious, I turned it on and went through the list of songs. I smiled when I saw the song "The Way I Are" and pushed play. I loved this song!! I let it play as I pondered my…"old" life. There was really no way I could go back to that now.

I started thinking about my school. Old color guard memories, going on competitions. My family. At this, I started crying again.

So much had changed in the past few months in fact, it was almost a year, now! I still love my family-we were all pretty close…but I never really told them how much I loved them.

I hope that my brother and sister have a good life, and that my mom and dad will be able to move on with theirs, and not miss me too much. To them, I'm dead now.

Then, I began thinking about my friends….My best friend…That thought made me cry (well, dry-sob) a little harder. I probably won't be the one to calm Beth down when she's hyper anymore, take her side if there's a fight. I can't even _see_ her anymore….I just hope that she'll be okay now.

Then, I laughed; I remembered her and I play-fighting….She would always be my best friend.

I moved on to a different topic to keep from being depressed, and remembered the time I got my first and--in my opinion--probably my last and only boyfriend.

I was a freshman, and had just turned fifteen. He was a senior, and was always pretty nice to me. He was tall and had a sturdy build, and was a _football player_, too. When he asked me out, of course I said "yes", but then things changed a little. He was used to being rough, and would try to play-fight with me, kind of like Beth would. I didn't really want to play-fight with him (mainly, I didn't want to get hurt), but I didn't really have a choice, either: He would steal something--usually what I was holding--from me, and try to keep it. Again, he was just being playful, and I would end up trying to get it back, but it really bugged me! That was the only reason I ever "wrestled" with him; to get my stuff back! It pushed just the right buttons when people just took my stuff from me like that. Especially him-my boyfriend! It seemed almost abusive to me.

Once, he got too rough for me, and I hurt my arm pretty bad. Ever since then, I've had a scar on my arm. (With a smile, I remembered that this was when Beth stepped in and told me that I should probably my relationship with him, so I did.) But that reminded me….

Hurriedly, I rolled up the right sleeve of my jacket to see if it was still there….Hmm, It's not. I rubbed my arm lightly, feeling for it….I've never noticed this before, but my arm felt like a rock!

Then, the sun came out and a ray of sunlight shone down on my arm. I was sparkling! I jumped up, and moved into the sunlight. It was like I was made out of a ton of little diamonds!!

I sat back down under the tree, waiting--geez, I was almost cowering--for the sun to go back behind the clouds. When it did I was relieved; I didn't really want to sparkle right now! I decided to move; I would find the scent later. So I put my iPod back in my pocket, got up and ran into the woods for a few minutes.

Soon, I came to a stop, and leaned against a tree. I wasn't tired; it was just comfortable. Then, I heard a noise. It was a happy, care-free noise! I wanted to go to that noise, and see if it would help me relax; maybe find something for me--a…_vampire_--to be just as happy and care-free about.

I was trying to come to terms with what I was, accept myself. It was going okay, but I needed some help; some rest & relaxation--or therapy--if you will.

I ran as fast as I could to the noise. I kept running, probably faster than I ever have before. Then, I found it.

It was beautiful. It was in a perfectly round, open…meadow. The meadow had delicate, little wildflowers in varying shades of violet, white, and yellow, with soft grass, swaying in the wind. It was--as usual in this new area--really cloudy, but I could tell that if the sun came back out, it would be one of the most heavenly places on earth. I crossed the meadow and came to what I was looking for.

It was a small stream. I don't know why, but when I heard the bubbly laugh of the stream as it flowed quickly over smooth rocks, and a tiny waterfall over a fallen log, I became really anxious, and had wanted to find it. (It probably had to do with just how bored and alone I was.) Well, I found it!

But looking at the stream, on it's hands and knees, was another creature that looked totally at peace. Sensing my presence in the meadow, he looked up. I tried as well as I could to control my urge to gasp, but it looked like he saw through my attempt; I think that he was one of _my_ kind!

Like me, he was very pale. His eyes-though-were a funny color. They were like a light caramel, or maybe topaz! Then, my super-girly side came out on my next thoughts of him.

He was a pretty cute guy, altogether. He had auburn hair, and if he stood up, he would probably be tall, maybe over six feet. He looked to be about 17 years old.

"Can I help you?" He asked in a quiet--but almost territorial--voice. He was still crouching.

"Um…uh-I just…." I knew, even as young as I was in this life, that it was probably never a good idea to encroach on another…one of…_my kind's_ territory. (We got a little defensive.) And even though I tried hard to hide it, it looked like he probably saw the discomfort and almost fear in my voice, and his expression softened.

"Uh.…I was just passing through. Sorry to disturb you; I'll get going, now." I was disappointed; I wanted to watch the stream go by as he was just doing. But as I turned to leave, he said something rather surprising for…one of _my kind_.

"No, that's fine. Can I offer you any help with something you might need?"

I turned back around to look at him, and he was standing, ('Yes, he _is_ tall' I thought to myself. ) with a hand outstretched to me. "My name is Edward."

I timidly and carefully took his hand, shook it, and said, smiling,

"Courtney."

He gently smiled in return.

Then, it was an awkward silence, where we just looked at each other. I was going to say something; I was still kind of scared, but then he said something even _more_ surprising than ever!

"Courtney, would you like to meet my family? You could perhaps take a quick rest, maybe clean up a little?" I hadn't been able to "clean up" myself-I didn't even know what I looked like!! But I didn't want to intrude.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother any of you." I said, referring to both him and his family. But he just smiled and said,

"Really, it's no problem!" And started to lead me in the direction of, supposedly, his house.

"And in all honesty, they would probably love to at least _meet_ you!"

"Okay." I said shyly. I really was looking forward to meeting someone and maybe taking some sort of shower.

But the first reason I was going with him was that I didn't want to offend him. Not only because he was being so nice, but he was another vampire, and I could really do without any enemies.

**Author's note: and now, we meet the Cullens!! In the next chapter, I might do an Edward point of view to explain why he is doing this, but do **_**you **_**want me to?**

**Review, please!!**

**ELS**


	5. Edward's Family

**Author's note: okay, here's chapter four!**

**Sorry I haven't been able to update in a while! I have finals coming up, and my teachers have been piling homework on me!! I think that this is the most homework I've ever had. Oh, well….just as a fair warning, I probably won't update next week, either. (I'm really sorry! There's no excuse for that, but that's all I've got!) But I will update!**

**Disclaimer: D. O. I.**

Chapter 4

Edward's Family

**Edward's Point of View**

I was in the meadow, just lying on the ground.

We were only passing through, not to be seen by anyone. My family and I were staying in Denali with Tanya's coven for now, and we were returning from a hunting trip in the southern part of Oregon. I had already gotten the things I needed to go back to Alaska, and then decided to come here while the rest of my family got some things.

We weren't going to leave right away; tonight was when we were going back. But for the mean time, I wanted to come here.

It had recently rained and the sun was about to come out, so I just lay on the ground waiting for it. A gust of wind had moved the clouds, and then it finally came. My skin started sparkling, and I closed my eyes, taking in the warmth of the sun.

After just a few minutes, the sun went back behind the clouds and as I opened my eyes it looked like it probably wasn't going to come back anytime soon.

Sighing, I sat up. I went over to the small stream in the meadow and studied it. It was interesting to watch the water rush by, sometimes taking stray leaves and twigs with it. It was peaceful, too.

Suddenly, I heard movement behind me. I looked up, and a few feet away stood a girl that looked to be about sixteen. She had brown hair and was a little dirty, with a tear in her shirt on her right shoulder with…dried blood surrounding it. From what she's wearing, and what she looks like, she must be a vampire. I glanced at her eyes and sure enough, they were a sort of red. So she was a newborn.

The thing that got me though, was that her eyes _were_ red, but by now the constant red would be wearing off a little. She had a light tint to them, making them seem brown. She must be feeding off of animals to make her eyes turn that color; my family and I all had something like that color at one point in time. If I didn't know any better, I would have said that she had a very distinct color of brown eyes. (And was a human!) The only thing that tipped me off was how quiet she was when she moved, and her appearance.

I tried to read her mind and found that, somehow, I couldn't! Then I started getting glimpses of thoughts, but I still couldn't quite hear her thoughts. This alarmed me just a little bit. She was a newborn and I couldn't read her mind. That bothered me; she could be dangerous! It was extremely frustrating not to be able to read her mind. Then I noticed that she was alone, and I took pity on her. Maybe it's better to get to know her before I judge her--even if she _is_ a vampire.

By now she looked a bit uncomfortable and seemed surprised to find me, so I asked,  
"Can I help you?" I said it in sort of a defensive way-she maybe feeding off of animals, but she's still a newborn.

"Um…uh-I just…."As she replied I could see how uncomfortable she was. She seemed a little scared, too. I softened my expression. It must be difficult for her; I wouldn't want to be alone like she was. (She also probably had to discover what she was on her own.)

_That would be quite hard._ I thought. Then an idea struck me.

Since she probably needed help --and would probably appreciate it, too-- maybe she could come with us to Denali, and stay with Tanya's clan --or, if worse comes to worse, _ours_ for that matter-- just to make it easier to adjust to the way of life she seemed to be taking, along with us.

"Uh.…I was just passing through. Sorry to disturb you; I'll get going, now." She seemed disappointed as she turned away.

Before she could take off running, I stood up, offered her my hand and said,

"No, that's fine. Can I offer you any help with something you might need?" She seemed cautious as she turned around, and a bit taken off guard from seeing my outstretched hand. So, to seem more friendly, I added,

"My name is Edward."

At that she smiled, carefully took my hand, and shaking it, said,

"Courtney."

After that I smiled at her.

Then it was kind of an awkward silence as I thought of how to get her to my house, and do it nicely, and without forcing her. It would be harder since I could only hear slivers of thoughts she was having. Thinking fast, I asked,

"Courtney, would you like to meet my family? You could perhaps take a quick rest, maybe clean up a little." I hoped I wasn't coming off rude, pointing out that she could "clean up a little", but I knew that she was probably interested in just getting cleaned up anyways.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother any of you." She answered, probably referring to me and my family. But I could see a bit of reluctance in her eyes as she said it. So I just smiled and said,

"Really, it's no problem!" And before she could protest further, I began leading her in the direction of my house.

"And in all honesty, they would probably love to at least _meet_ you!" Which was pretty true.

"Okay." She said shyly.

As we kept walking, I was think about how I would explain this to Carlisle. I can't hear her thoughts, she is supposedly feeding off of animals, and I think that we should help her. I didn't like her. If anything, we were just friends. I felt bad for her, though, and I hoped he would understand.

**Back to Courtney's Point of View**

As we walked, me only about two steps behind him, I could tell that he was deep in thought. Seeing him think made me think, too.

Would his family like me? I know that I won't be staying for long, but still! Were they going to be as nice as he was? What would they do if they _didn't_ like me? As we walked on, questions like these kept going through my head. I could only imagine what I looked like. Hunting and running almost at the speed of light for six months without changing, and without taking a shower?

Since my "change", I found that I couldn't produce sweat or anything, but I'll bet that with the dirt and dried blood, that I looked filthy and probably kind of scary! Eventually, he said something.

"Courtney?" Then I realized that while we were walking, he was looking at me. Studying my face.

"Yes?" I asked quietly.

"What type of things do you hunt?"

"Huh?" Was he referring to what I 'eat'?…Well, drink was more like it.

"How you find 'food'." I could hear the quotation marks around "food".

"Oh. I…'hunt' animals."

"Is there a reason for that?" He asked curiously. He seemed almost relieved and happy that that was my answer. I felt pathetic as I replied to his new question, but decided to tell the truth.

"Well, I don't really want to kill anyone. I didn't go back home because of that reason." Short, sweet, and to the point. Of course I tacked the home comment on at the end, but I think he got the idea.

Before he could reply, we came to a very open space. I almost thought that it was another meadow, just the fact that there was a huge, white house in the middle was the only thing that gave it away. From where we were, it looked like we were facing the side of it. He stopped walking, and said,

"This is my house."

"It's very pretty." I said politely, and smiled.

"Would you like to come inside?" He smiled at me. It seemed like he had already asked me that, but he looked nervous as he asked it again.

"Um…sure. Only if that's okay with you." He smiled, relieved yet again at my answer, then said,

"Oh, it's fine. I just was making sure."

Then we walked up to his house, he opened the door, and we walked in. I took in the amazing view before me.

"I'll be right back." He told me. He then went up some stairs, but I barely noticed.

His house was huge!! Just on the left of the door, there was a small, raised platform with a pretty piano on it. There was a huge room with a smaller hall that led off to the kitchen, and probably a family room of some sort, but I couldn't see them. On the west side of the room, there was a massive staircase leading up to the second floor. And across the big room from where I was standing, the back wall was made of glass!! I could see out the glass to his back yard, where there were some cedar trees and out a little farther, a river. It had hardwood floors, and was altogether pretty nice! It was white and very open.

Then Edward came down the stairs. I almost didn't remember that he had left! I was about to say something about his house, but I suddenly realized that he was followed by more vampires.

I had the weirdest feelings when they came down. I wanted to crouch and defend myself. But most of all, I wanted to turn and run; it felt very threatening to see all of them come down the stairs and stop about ten feet from where I was standing; some stayed on the stairs, giving me some room, I think. But suddenly, the defensive feelings disappeared, and I realized that I had visibly tensed up, so I relaxed into the calm. Then, Edward walked over to my side and introduced me to his family.

"Courtney," he said, with careful hand gestures. "This is my family. There's Carlisle," he gestured to a tall blond vampire that looked like he was probably the oldest of the males. Carlisle smiled warmly at me when Edward said his name.

" and Jasper," he pointed to another tall blond male who smiled politely at me.

"and Rosalie." he pointed to yet another blond vampire. Even though they were all extremely gorgeous, she was probably the most beautiful being I would ever see. After that, he pointed to a very small girl with short black hair.

"Then, there is Alice," Alice gave me a small wave and big grin.

"Esme," the one named Esme had caramel-colored hair and looked almost like she was from a fairy tale -like she was Belle from "Beauty and The Beast"…no, no; Snow White fit her much better. When Edward said her name, she smiled very gently at me.

"and Emmett." He then gestured to a very big, very muscular --and if he didn't have such a huge smile on his face at me, like they all did-- a very menacing-looking vampire with sort of brown, curly hair. Then Edward turned to me, and announced,

"Everyone, this is Courtney." They all said something like "Hi, Courtney", or "Hello", or in Esme's case, "Welcome, Courtney".

Then Carlisle, still smiling, said "Welcome to our home, Courtney. Edward tells us that you were alone and he wanted to offer you some help. Would you like to take a moment and sit with us in the family room?" He asked politely.

"Sure." I answered shyly and still brightly at the same time. He was very kind to me, and even though I was surrounded by (supposedly) nice vampires and was somehow very relaxed, I was still on my toes a bit.

He led us to a nice living room with a few different couches and chairs, a coffee table, and there was also a flat-screen T. V.! With a twinge of home-sickness, memories of watching "Ghost Hunters" came back to me, and I suddenly wondered what it would look like on this cool-looking flat-screen.

Carlisle took his seat in an armchair, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett took a seat on a big couch, and I sat down next to Edward on a smaller couch. Esme sat on the other side of Edward; her body was somehow angled so that she could see me past Edward, and was smiling warmly at me.

I wasn't sure what to say next, and Carlisle, thankfully, took the lead and began talking.

"Well, Courtney, Edward tells me that you hunt animals." I nodded my head 'yes'.

"We also hunt animals." Now, he had my attention. I was still new to being…a…_vampire_, and it would be interesting and very helpful to hear what real vampires did. I had a small reference of knowledge for vampires, and I wasn't sure about any of them now. For example, I thought that they might burn in the sun. This wasn't the case with me; I sparkled. Also, they were apparently supposed to sleep in coffins (or at least _something_) during the day, and I couldn't sleep at all! I never really even got tired! Maybe a little winded from running for a while, but still….

"The reason we hunt animals," he continued. "Is because we don't want to hurt other people. Do you feel this way, also?" I simply nodded my head 'yes'. Then he smiled.

Then, Esme said, "Courtney, we have some friends that also feed from animals. We were going there this evening, and were wondering if you would like to come stay with us all for a time. It would help you get used to this life and diet a little easier." she seemed very hopeful as she asked me this. I wondered what it would feel like to "live" with other vampires, to have a family. (A family of vampires, none the less!) As I tried to think quickly (I knew that I would probably end up saying "yes" in the end), Alice said,

"Courtney, while you're thinking it over, would you like to change into a new shirt? If you wanted me to, I could wash and perhaps mend your jacket?" I looked down at the rip in my shoulder, and my eyes widened. It had gotten much bigger over the course of time, and I had gotten even dirtier. I think that while I change, I'll probably ask for a shower, too.

I nodded, and said, "Yes, thank you , Alice." Then she stood up and led me up the stairs, down a hall, and to --what I guessed-- her room. She opened a door to a walk-in closet. As I followed her, my eyes grew wide at seeing so many clothes. She grabbed a full outfit for me, and before I could open my mouth to ask if I could maybe take a shower too, she asked me first. It was almost like she read my mind, or something! I smiled gratefully at her and said,

"Thanks Alice! I really appreciate all this."

"No problem." she smiled at me. "If you need anything else, I'll either be here in my room or downstairs, so just give a shout." She reached up and gave me a quick hug, and I hugged her back before she could let go.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After taking a shower, I tried as best I could to dry my hair. I didn't use her hair dryer. (In all honesty, I couldn't find it, and didn't want to bother her for one.) And was doing okay. All I really did was towel out my hair really well, then I'd brush it and ruffle it a little. The ceiling fan was on, so it circulated the air and helped my hair-drying go faster.

It was _so nice_ to take a shower! After seeing my appearance in the mirror, I was a little embarrassed to know that they saw me like that. I was so appalled at my dirty reflection, that I didn't realize what I looked like until I got _out_ of the shower.

The shower only lasted about five short minutes, and after getting out, I had put on a red shirt and a pair of khaki pants with a matching sash to go around my waist, along with underwear and a cute pair of ballet-flats that were red with white polka-dots all from Alice. _I'll have to thank her again._ I thought. I then began to dry my hair, and that's when I noticed my reflection.

I was really pretty! Maybe not as pretty as Edward and his family was, but still! I had really changed! I had then started to "dry" my hair and just stared at my face.

I am really pale now, and now I've got dark, purple shadows under my eyes. I don't have any sort of blush, but my lips are a very light pink, and my hair is just slightly longer. It looks like it has just a few highlights showing up, and it's a little wavier than it used to be. In fact, it almost looks like it curls. _I look taller, too._ I thought to myself. Ruffling my hair again, I noticed that it could pass for dry, so I ran the brush through it once more. I tried to think of how long I had been in here. The shower only lasted about five minutes, and with the ceiling fan going, my hair only took about another ten minutes. So I've been in Alice's bathroom for, roughly, fifteen minutes. _HA! A new record!_ I thought.

I hung the towel up, and put the brush back on the counter where it used to be. Then I picked up my old clothes and opened the door into Alice's room. I walked out of the bathroom, and stood by her bed. I wasn't sure what to do with my old clothes. _Do I bring them with me or leave them in the bathroom?_ I silently asked myself. Before I could do anything else, Alice walked out of her closet. What was she doing in there?

"Hi, Courtney! Do you want me to take your clothes for you?" Not really knowing what else to do with them, I decided to trust Alice.

"Sure. Thanks again, Alice" I told her as she took my clothes.

"Really, it's no problem!" She said with a big smile. I smiled back at her.

She put my clothes in her closet somewhere, and then led me back down the stairs to the family room. As I walked in, I could tell that they were a bit surprised to see me clean…well, clean_er_, anyways. I sat back down next to Edward, of course keeping a little distance; I was a little nervous still. But then relaxed again, this time without that weird, strange calmness. When I walked in, they were all talking quietly amongst themselves, and after I sat down and Carlisle began talking, they stopped talking and focused on what he was saying.

"Well", Carlisle began. "We're going to leave in about three hours. The other coven" _So that's what they call groups of vampires._ I thought. "lives up in Alaska, in a small town called Denali. You wouldn't have to worry about clothes; we could get you some, or Alice and Rosalie have some that you might want to borrow." Alice and Rosalie smiled at me when he said their names.

"So…what would you like to do, Courtney?" Esme asked me quietly. "We would enjoy it if you would come with us." Again, she was hopeful about my answer.

I didn't need for anyone to try to convince me to go with them; I felt very welcome here. And, as I looked in each of their faces, I could see varying expressions of hopeful and knowing. The "knowing" expressions were mainly on Edward and Alice's faces. I wondered why, but at the moment it didn't matter. I was looking forward to the time I would be spending with this family- if only for a little while.

"I'd like to come with you, if that's ok. It _would_ be easier for me to…adjust to my diet." I was going to say more, but Carlisle's face, along with everyone else's (especially Esme's) brightened up at my answer. They seemed really happy. _Why is that?!_ I wondered. I was totally confused! I was completely new to them, and they were new to me; Edward had just found me in some random place by a stream, and I had been in their home for about a grand total of…a half an hour!… Could have been like, 45 minutes, but still! _oh, well._ I'll just find out later. Everyone was talking again; it was just quiet murmurs here and there and Carlisle began talking to me again.

"I'm glad that you've decided that." And he really _did_ seem glad. "Again, we'll leave in a few hours and, unless you would rather go shopping, there are plenty of clothes that you could borrow." I briefly remembered Alice's closet and wondered if Rosalie's was like that.

I was kind of zoning out, thinking about what was going to happen tonight. It was going to be…I couldn't think of a word…fun? That's definitely what it felt like! Then I noticed that Rosalie, Emmett, and Carlisle were gone. Edward and Alice were talking about something across the room. Alice seemed excited, and Edward…not quite as excited, but that was probably just how he was. Jasper was walking towards them, an Esme came over to me.

"I'm so glad you've decided to be with us for a while, dear." I could tell, now, that I was really going to like Esme. Probably even like a mother. She seemed to really like me.

"Thank you." I said. I smiled gratefully at her. "It'll be easier for me to not be so alone, as well as feeding off of animals."

"I understand." She seemed to know that I was a little more than confused about why they wanted me to stay with them so bad. Or at least it seemed that way to me.

" We're just excited that you feed off of animals like us. Most of our kind don't feed off of animals…. They…feed on humans." I don't know whether or not she was expecting my reaction, but I had to ask.

"Why?! Why would they do that?!" I tried not to raise my voice or seem too surprised, but she could see that. It looked like she was going to answer, but she looked at the clock, then back at me.

"I'll try to tell you later on; for now, let's go pack." Then Alice skipped over to my side and said,

"Don't worry, Esme, I'll help her." The Alice and I were on our way up to her room again. When we got up there, she told me to take a seat on her bed. So, like a good guest, I sat and waited patiently while Alice got out a medium-ish suitcase, set it next to me, and went into her closet. As I was waiting for her to get the first "load", Rosalie came in with an armful of clothes, smiled at me, and then set them next to the suitcase as Alice came out with her own armful.

And thus began some epic packing with Alice and Rosalie!

**Author's note: sorry this took forever to get up and the mistakes it might contain! I feel horrible about how long this took! Go, ahead, yell!…Wait…OK…NOW! I'm ready for it! (Just know that I'll still love you even if you hate me! I just can't believe how long this took me…. But you know my excuse. :) )**

**ELS**


	6. Extra Senses

**Author's note: ok! My finals are over!… And my brain is ****officially**** fried. If you see any major mistakes, I'm sorry! (I do what I can!)**

**Hope you like it!!**

**Disclaimer: D. O. I.**

Chapter 5

"Extra Senses"

Packing with Alice and Rosalie was…interesting! Occasionally, they would ask my opinion about what they were holding (it was kind of obvious that they were packing for me - most of the clothes they showed me would probably fit me pretty well and they were already finished with their packing… Alice had a few suitcases already sitting by the door). So far, the suitcase was almost full, and there were some pretty dang cute clothes.

"Well, we're basically done, Courtney." Rosalie said, smiling at me.

"Yep! If you want to, you're free to go and do something else!" Alice laughed, closing the suitcase and setting it by hers. "You can go watch TV, we have some computers…. You can even go for a walk if you want to. But if you do, don't go too far; we have about an hour and a half until we're going to leave." Rosalie had already walked out of Alice's room. Alice was slowly making her way to her bathroom while looking at me for an answer. I glanced out the window to see what the weather was like. It was cloudy and dark now. Looking back at her, I said,

"Ok, thanks, Alice. I'll probably just go downstairs and watch TV."

"Ok, Courtney." She said smiling. Then she opened her bathroom door and walked in.

I got off of her bed and looked out her bedroom door. I looked both ways down the hall, and choose to go to my left first. The stairs were on my right about ten feet away; I just wanted to see the rest of their house. Maybe I could listen to my iPod as I walked.

Before I left Alice's bathroom after I showered, I made sure I transferred it from the pocket of my old, dirty jeans to the pants that Alice had lent me. It's not that I didn't trust the Cullens or something like that; my iPod was probably my most prized possession now, and I was trying to keep it as safe as I could. It held so many memories; it was the last thing I had from my human life.

I felt bad as I crept down the huge hallway, like I was prying, but I kept walking. As I walked, I thought of where to go and what to do when I was done "touring" their home…. _I could go back to that beach and try to track that scent again, _I thought. But then I remembered how dark it was outside. I didn't want to get dirty again and be an inconvenience by taking another shower and getting changed all over again, so I decided against it. I remembered the peculiar scent, too…. Something about it made my hair stand on end now. _Yeah, I'll just stay here for a little bit._ I agreed with my instincts.

I kept going down the hall. It was just about thirty seconds later when I came across a room with the door open. Every other door that I had passed was closed. I walked slower now and got quieter. _I can hear music!_ I thought. (My love for music was strengthened since I became a vampire -- not only because I loved it so much before, but also because-like I said-of the memories it held for me.) There was a soft song playing in the room. It sounded like it was on a piano.

About three feet away from the door, I stopped walking and debated whether or not to look inside. I could sense that there was someone in there. Before I could talk myself out of it, I looked inside the room through the small opening the door made. Edward was lounging on a black leather couch. The carpet was a dark gold color and the walls were a slightly darker shade. One wall was like the wall downstairs; it was all glass! And on another wall, I could only see the beginning of a very large rack of CDs. The music was coming from an advanced-looking sound system. It was a pretty good song; soft and calming. I was about to move on again--I felt bad, like I was spying on Edward--but then he looked up and I could tell that he saw me. Instead of looking away like he didn't see me or just ignoring me, he smiled and said in a pleasant voice,

"Hi, Courtney. Come in." I walked in, knowing that if I could blush then I probably would be quite a handsome scarlet now. As I came in, he gestured to the couch for me to sit next to him.

"Hi, Edward." I said as I took my seat. I saw then just how many CDs he had. They covered the entire wall!! I looked back at Edward. He looked a little amused at something. Feeling like it was something to do with me, I just smiled at him like an idiot, not really knowing what to do next. Then he spoke.

"Can I help you with anything, Courtney?" he asked politely.

"No, everything is just fine. Rosalie and Alice packed some things for me; I'm good." I said, giving him a huge smile. A few seconds of silence liter, I asked timidly, "And Edward?"

I felt stupid for what I was about to say; I didn't know how to say it without sounding like a total moron. I wasn't even going to say it in the first place! I was going to do this later on, but I just wanted to get it over with and now seemed like a good time.

"Yes?" He asked curiously. I got up and stood in front of him, looking at my feet.

"Thanks for bringing me here." As I said that, I focused on a polka-dot on my left shoe. "I'm really happy to be here, and everyone is so nice." It was really nice of him to offer me to come to his home and everything. He didn't even know me and he still helped me! I had a feeling that, even though I've only been here for about a grand total of an hour, I would be staying with him and his family for a long time, and that meant a lot to me. I gave him a bright smile to lessen my feeling of dorkiness and it seemed to work. He smiled back at me and said,  
"Don't worry about it, Courtney! We're really glad to have you here." It was just a little bit weird for me now, and I think it was for him too, so I just gave him a goofy smile and said,

"Thanks…. Well, I'll leave you alone, now. Sorry, I was just walking around." He just smiled at me as I walked back out his door and closed it behind me. _Whew!_ I thought. _Well that was just a little awkward!_ I smiled sheepishly as I thought that. I usually didn't show too much emotion-except for happiness, anyway. Then I felt a pang of sadness as another memory came back to me.

Me and Beth would run around our school (we could be really spastic!…sometimes it was worse if we had sugar!) and we were the ones that people would look to for a good laugh. I was almost never sad, just "Little Miss Sunshine". In our fresh man year, in color guard, we were the happiest ones during early morning practice and the band saw us as the ones who would always see the glass "half full". Then I wanted to laugh again at another memory of me and Beth. This time bitterly and sadly.

Beth and I told each other nearly everything…. Nobody seemed to realize that we had problems, too. (_I have much more serious problems, now._ I thought angrily.)

Most of our problems were when I was still with my "abusive" boyfriend, and Beth was having trouble getting some guy's attention.

I wish that I could have helped her with him, like she helped me with my boyfriend. (Apparently I wasn't the only one that thought that he was a little abusive; she helped me break up with him.) Beth really liked this guy named Chris. He was a few months younger than us, making him a grade lower, but she really liked him! I just wish that I could return the favor. Then all of my memories of my best friend came back to me, and I actually laughed at some. _It's been a while since I've laughed!_ I thought. She used to think "Sponge Bob Square Pants" was the funniest show ever! She would even quote some of Patrick's best lines.

Then I sunk into a mini-depression. I really missed her.

Then I looked around myself, realizing that I was standing in the hall at the Cullen's, having extreme mood swings. _Oh geez, get a grip! _I rolled my eyes at myself. I started walking again. So much for 'not showing emotion'! Then I thought sadly, _Beth's got her life, and now you've got yours._

Not really helping with my "mood swings", I tried to cheer myself up now. I thought brightly, _While we still can, let's make the most of it!_ But my attempt at happiness wasn't really working.

So instead, I focused on the present. _What's today? Wednesday? It is!_ At that thought, I picked up my pace down the hall, remembering something vitally important…. It was _Wednesday_! Even though it's been months since I last did it, I remembered that there was something I had to do just about every Wednesday--Wednesday _night_ to be exact--and I think I'm running out of time!… Or at the very least, cutting it close! I ran down the stairs as normally as I could -- it was still pretty fast (for a human, anyway). I was back in the entry way at the bottom of the stairs. I quickly and quietly went to the kitchen. Looking at a clock, I saw that it was approximately 7:01 p.m. _Where is everyone?_ I wondered. But that didn't matter. I had to get to a TV, and fast!

I found the family room again and seated myself on the sofa in front of the TV. As I picked up the remote, I noticed that the Cullens also had a very nice game system! The only ones I could identify was: a Game Cube, an Xbox 360, a PS2, and a Wii! _I may have to try these out._ I decided. But I had to focus! There more important things than mere GAMES right now!

Cullens and all existence of… _vampires_ forgotten, I picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Like I said, it was a nice flat-screen and it made me even more excited. I began furiously flipping channels.

"Come on, come on!" I muttered impatiently. I didn't want to miss anything! Finally, I found it!

"Ghost Hunters!" I whispered happily. I settled myself in to watch.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

_That was a good one!_ I decided when the end credits came on. Tonight was a new episode, and I really got into it!

The T.A.P.S. team went to St. Augustine, Florida to investigate a certain lighthouse. They had been there once before, but were invited back. Mainly because, ever since they had last investigated, the "hauntings" had become more and more often. They didn't get as much evidence as last time, but what they _did_ get was even spookier; voice recordings, and stuff like that!

To make it better, almost all of the lights in this house were off and I was alone. Other than that, I was right about the flat-screen-it was amazing! Plus, the surround-sound had made this one of the best nights I've had in a long time…. In a weird way…. The spookiness was intensified.

Then I realized that I was laying down on my side. (This couch was really comfy! And I noticed that I actually had curves, too…. At least since my change.) I was about to get up and find Alice or Edward, maybe even Carlisle. Maybe I was a vampire now, but I was a _teeny bit_ scared to be alone in this mansion and I had to find someone for company. I hated to leave the TV, even for a few minutes--I'm not addicted to TV, I just haven't watched it in so long, and my love for Ghost Hunters has almost multiplied. And besides; there was a commercial saying that another episode of Ghost Hunters was coming on. Even though it was probably a re-run --trust me, it was; I could tell-- my heart was beginning to ache from the memories of my…_human_ life.

That settled it. I had to stop dwelling on the past. It's gonna make me go crazy! I was about to sit up to go find someone when the lights turned on.

A little startled, I turned to see Emmett in the doorway with his hand on the light switch. His huge form caught me off guard a little bit; I still wasn't too used to him, and the weird part of my instincts told me to defend myself from the others again.

"Sorry." He smiled apologetically at me. He seemed so friendly, I couldn't help but relax and smile back.

"That's fine." I replied, grinning. I sat up and he sat down in a chair next to the sofa I was on. Then he smiled at me again.

"So…" he started. "Are you excited for Denali?"

"I'm excited…to meet more people." I said. It's not that I didn't want to go with the Cullens to meet more vampires, or even be with the Cullens at all. I was just slightly nervous about all these new experiences. Well, new experiences to the _vampire_ me, anyways.

"That's cool." He nodded his head. By the way he was acting, it looked like he had something to tell me. He got right to the point. "Well, we're going to leave in about a half an hour." He studied my face, probably looking for a reaction.

"Well, ok." I answered. I _was_ a little nervous, but I wasn't going to let that ruin anything. At least not let it show. He smiled at me, as if he was pleased with my reaction. "Thanks for letting me know, Emmett." It was quiet for a bit, and then he said something surprising.

"Hey," I looked up at him. "Wanna play me?!" He sounded excited and I didn't want to let him down, but I had _no idea_ what he was talking about. He could probably see that, too.

"Huh?"

"Wanna play a game?" He gestured to the game systems sitting near the TV.

"Sure." I smiled. I got a little competitive at video games; I was pretty good. I used to beat Beth…. But I couldn't think about that now; I was going to play Emmett! This was bound to have some fun in it.

He knelt in front of the TV, hooking up one of the systems. I came over to him to help. His enthusiasm reminded me a little bit of my brother, Logan, when he got a new game and wanted to try it out. I was excited! He took the first game controller, and handed me the second one. We sat in front of the TV with our backs against the coffee table about 6 feet away. I was about to ask what we were going to play when the game menu came on.

So we were snowboarding, huh? Perfect! I relaxed now, stretching my legs out in front of me. I was best at snowboarding, and totally dominated Beth and all of my other friends, including the guys! Of course I was decent in car racing. But with games like "Halo" and "Resident Evil 4"?… That was another story, completely.

We picked our sow boarders and their boards, making comments about how they looked, and then picked the "arena" they would be racing in. Emmett seemed to notice how comfortable I was.

"Think you can handle this, Courtney?" He teased, grinning evilly at me.

"Oh, I think this'll be easy! Hope you can keep up." I challenged. He laughed and we turned back to our game.

"…3..." The countdown on the game started and I chuckled, thinking about how we contrasted each other. Him, looking like an extreme body builder, and me, a teenaged girl, just barley sixteen. (It was only about 4 months after my sixteenth birthday when I was changed.) "….2..." The game continued. _SNAP OUT OF IT!!!_ I yelled in my head. _Get your head in the game! Show Emmett what you're made of!!! _"…1..." I thought of our size difference again and whispered a laugh; it would make it all the sweeter when I kicked his butt in this game. "GO!" flashed across the screen then, and then we were off.

Emmett was good; I'll give him that. He won the first game, then I surprised him by winning the second one. It was a bit difficult, though. We would beat each other by mere seconds, and were on our third game, going for best two out of three. We had just started and were teasing each other about slip-ups we might have made. It was easy to catch up and I felt strangely at ease with him even though we were "engaged in battle". We got closer and closer to the finish line and it was in sight now. We went in for the kill, and I could tell that it would be a tie and we would have to do some round of "sudden death".

Then Edward walked in. He stood off to my right (Emmett was on my left) and watched our game. There were two snow ramps in front of me and Emmett before we could get to the finish line. We were in midair from the first one when Edward decided to speak up.

"Hey guys." He said calmly. I replied with my own 'hello', but Emmett was startled. That was surprising; I thought he had heard Edward come in. I had.

When Edward spoke it made Emmett jump slightly, making him swerve just a little bit. Since we were in midair, he fell down when he landed. I flew up the second snow ramp and zipped across the finish line.

Edward began laughing at the little episode while I gave Emmett a cocky grin. That just made Edward laugh harder.

Emmett, seeing that I had won, pouted a little bit. Seeing Emmett pout and then remembering my thoughts on our contrast in size, I erupted into laughter with Edward. Emmett and Edward seemed just about as surprised as I was about me laughing. They had never heard me laugh (_I_ didn't even know what my laugh sounded like!) and they both looked a bit surprised. I think I did too, because Edward kept laughing, and Emmett began laughing at the expression on my face. We laughed for a solid five minutes.

Eventually, Jasper walked in. He looked at all of us and then at the TV. Seeing that I was the winner, he smiled and said,

"Hey, guys. Can I play the winner?" We laughed a little more at that and the rest of the Cullens came in. Sensing the light atmosphere, they began taking random seats while Rosalie asked Edward what happened. As Emmett and I put the game and controllers away, Edward filled everyone in on our tournament and my victory. Carlisle chuckled, Esme smiled, and Emmett pretended to glare at me. I just smiled sweetly at him causing everyone to chuckle at us.

I sat down next to Alice on the small sofa and Carlisle began talking.

"Well, now it's time for us go to Denali. Does everyone have what they need?" There were murmurs of confirmations. Did a half an hour really pass already? Emmett asked exactly what I was wondering.

"Is is really time to go?" He asked, bewildered.

"Yep." Alice replied.

"Well, since everyone has everything they need, I think that we should take all of the cars. That way, we have all of them in case we need them. I'm not sure how long we'll be gone for." Everyone agreed.

"Well, with that said, we should probably load up. Everyone pick a car and let's get going." As everyone began to leave, Esme came over to me.

"Courtney, I'm going to go with Carlisle in his car. Rosalie will be taking her car, and Emmett and Edward have theirs." I debated who I wanted to go with. I had fun with Emmett, so I kind of wanted to keep hanging out with him. But then Rosalie might be easier to talk to. I would love to go with Esme and Carlisle, and Edward is awesome, too…. I just have no idea. I was about to agree to go with her when Alice came over and said,

"Hey Courtney, will you come with me?" I wasn't sure who she was riding with, but she looked like she wanted me to go with her so I said,

"Sure Alice." Then I turned to Esme and said, "Thank you, Esme. I'll just go with her." I gestured to Alice. Esme gave me a big hug and said,

"Ok. Have a fun trip. I'll see you when we get there." Then she smiled at me and walked away. Alice said,

"Alrighty, Courtney. Lets go get some stuff." And we began our way up to her room. On the way she informed me that she and Jasper were going with Edward. She also let me know that Edward had a silver Volvo and Rosalie had a red BMW. She said it was an "M3" or something like that, but I don't know too much about cars, so that didn't really mean anything to me. Emmett had a huge jeep and Carlisle had a black Mercedes. By now, we had our "luggage" and were putting it in Edward's Volvo's trunk. Edward and Jasper's bags were already in there. His trunk had a lot of space!

We had one more small meeting in the living room before leaving. I learned that this trip would take almost all night. We were about to get in the cars to go when Carlisle came up to me and said,

"How are you doing, Courtney?"

"I'm fine." I replied, giving him a smile.

"That's good." He smiled back at me. "If there's anything you need, feel free to ask any one of us."

"Ok. Thanks, Carlisle." I smiled gratefully at him as he and I walked out the door.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I was in Edward's Volvo sitting next to Alice in the back. Edward and Jasper were talking while Alice told me about her favorite places to shop. She really likes to shop! Especially with Rosalie. She said that I would have "so much fun!" going with her. I like Alice; she's cute and everything, but I don't like shopping that much. I believe that I _will_ enjoy shopping with Alice, I just hope that she doesn't take me too often!

Moving on to a different subject, Alice began to tell me about the coven in Denali. Tanya is the leader. She, Kate, and Irina are very old--at least in "vampire-ness"…. Anyways, there is also Carmen and Eleazar. Alice said that they are "mates". (She told me that means that they are together like Esme and Carlisle, and Rosalie with Emmett, and her and Jasper.) They also feed off of animals. Other than that, Kate and Eleazar have "special talents".

"What do you mean by 'special talents'?" I asked her. She seemed unsure about how to explain it.

"Like extra senses." Edward tried. I then realized that I had basically yelled my question at her and Edward and Jasper had stopped to listen.

"What? Like what kind of 'extra senses'?" I still really didn't get it. Jasper gazed at Edward for a little bit until Edward nodded his head a tiny bit. _What the HECK?!_ This was just getting weird. It was like he just _read_ his _mind_ or something like that!

"Well, Courtney", Jasper started. "You've heard of things like reading minds, right?" _Oh, boy._ I thought. _Is he going where I think he's going with this?_ He continued.

"Well, just things like that. Some vampires acquire 'extra senses'." Wow. That's interesting. And weird. I just nodded my head as I took that in. It doesn't seem that big, but come on! You've recently become a vampire (without knowing that they even _existed_), you are know basically living with a bunch of 'vegetarian' vampires (at least I hope I am), you are on your way to meet more, and you find out that not only can you run at the speed of light, sparkle in the sun (not to mention drink blood-that's a given), but there are extra senses that some vampires might have! Yeah, I'm trying to stay cool right now.

"For example, I'm a mind-reader." Edward smiled at me. _Yeah, they went there._ I thought.

"I see the future." Alice added, giving me a small smile. It was quiet until Edward opened his mouth to say something else, but then a thought popped into my head and I blurted out,

"Can you read _my_ mind?!" I basically shrieked at him. He chuckled and said,

"Not really. I can hear your thoughts, but you're just a little different." Well that was comforting! Stupid, crazy things happen to me, and not even a _mind reader_ can read my mind like he or she would read a _normal_ person's!

"I have to focus on your mind a little harder to hear your thoughts." He continued. "Like, if you're really focusing on something, or if you're on your guard." Hmmm… I leaned back into my seat. I decided to see if it would work, so I relaxed a little. I know that this is going to be one of the most random things ever to be heard by him…from me anyways, but I wanted to try it. So then I thought: _Well, in that case my favorite color is blue… Can you hear me now?_

I know it's dumb, but I was a little excited to see if my attempt at communicating through the mind worked. Edward laughed and said,

"Yes, I hear you." I smiled at him. Now I could talk to someone without having to use my mouth!

"There are also other types of 'powers'." He continued on. That confused me again. There were other 'special talents'? Then Jasper turned to me and said,

"I can sense emotions." That just confused me more. How did that work? "For example, you're a little confused right now." He said. Oh, so he just knows what you're feeling…. Was he the reason I felt so at peace when I came into their home for the first time? I remembered being so on edge, then that feeling of calm washing over. After a couple seconds of contemplating that, I took that as my answer. Yes, yes he was. Then something else popped into my head.

"Does anybody else have 'special talents' or 'powers', or whatever?" I asked.

"Well, not really…. Emmett is stronger than your average vampire. Just stuff like that." Alice said. "Not every vampire gets some sort of 'power'." Then it was kind of quiet until Jasper turned to me and said,

"Hey, Courtney?" I looked up at him. He looked curious as he spoke. "Do _you_ have any extra senses or something like that?" I looked at Alice and she had this blank look in her eyes. I looked back at Jasper and then at Edward and their attention was also focused on her. When her eyes came back into focus, she looked at me with a huge smile on her face and Edward looked a little shocked. He looked at me in his rear view mirror then back at the road and smiled along with Alice. _Did Edward read her mind? Did she just have a vision?! _I looked at Edward. _Edward did she have a vision?!_ I yelled at him in my head. I wasn't sure whether or not he would be able to hear me, so I guess I felt the need to "yell". He started to look like he was holding back laughter and gave a tiny nod, answering my question.

"No. Nothing." I answered Jasper. This was getting kind of weird.

"Well, what was something you really liked in your human life?" Jasper inquired. He seemed to just ignore Alice and Edward, so I tried to also. I thought about my iPod. I didn't know if that was what he meant, but I decided to give it a try.

"My iPod." They way I said it, it sounded like it was a question.

"What was your favorite song on your iPod?" Alice asked with a twinkle in her eye. She was still smiling. I thought about how to answer her. That was hard; I liked so many!

"Just think of your favorite song." Edward suggested. He was still holding back laughter. "Play it over in your head, something like that." I had absolutely no idea where they were going with this, but decided to go along with it anyway. At least for laughs. I thought about the song "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" by The Offspring. Nothing happened. I looked at Alice, then at Jasper who were both still watching me, Alice with a gleam in her eye. I looked at Edward who was gazing at the road with a concentrating look on his face and thought about what he said about reading my mind. He said something about not being able to hear me when I was focused on something or "was on my guard", something like that. So I asked,

"Did you hear what song I was thinking about?" I was going to ask him in my head but the whole point of asking him out loud was to find out if he could even hear me. He shook his head slowly and replied,

"Not really. It's almost like your fading in and out. I can hear you, but I can't make out the song."

"Concentrate harder." Alice suggested. I don't know what she "saw" but if she was this excited, it must be a good thing, so I focused harder. I even closed my eyes. I concentrated on the lyrics and guitar, the whole thing. In my head, it was getting pretty loud! The song was beginning to come to an end -- well, just passing the middle part -- and I could start to feel Alice almost bouncing with anticipation. I was surprised and a teensy bit irritated to know that they were keeping something from me. They knew that I knew, too. I was about to open my eyes and ask Alice why she was so DANG excited when I was surrounded by music. Well, not really surrounded; but you couldn't quite tell where it was coming from, either.

"_Now he's getting a tattoo.  
Yeah he's gettin' ink done.  
He asked for a '13', but they drew a '31'."_

I opened my eyes and looked at Alice in pure surprise. She was beaming at me. The music was kind of soft but, even though I was looking at Alice like I had just been slapped, I kept playing it on in my head. It started to get louder.

_  
"Friends say he's trying too hard  
And he's not quite hip.  
But in his own mind  
He's the, he's the dopest trip."_

I gasped as the music kept going on. Edward was full on laughing now, Jasper's jaw had dropped and was smiling the goofiest grin ever, and Alice threw her arms around me. Even though I was much more durable than I had been in my human life, her hug was still quite bone-crushing. I wasn't sure why we were all so happy (for some strange reason they seemed almost proud of me, making me feel…almost victorious), but I didn't let the music in my head stop, so it continued to pound throughout the car.

"_Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.  
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.  
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.  
Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, cinco, seis."_

Even though the song wasn't completely over, I stopped it. But instead of stopping altogether, it got really quiet and eventually stopped like I was just turning the volume down. It took all of three seconds for it to get quiet again. It was silent till I decided that I was about to scream from all the strangeness that had just happened so, as calmly as I could, I said,

"Uh…. What the _heck_ just happened?… You all heard that, right?!" I was beginning to wonder if my mind had cracked or if this was all just a horrible nightmare. In fact, I was about to close my eyes and pretend it was until Alice announced,

"Courtney!! That's your 'power'!" She looked like she was about to explode from being so happy. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, a sarcastic part of me wondered whether or not she was always this spastic.

"Huh?" I was in complete denial. _What just happened?!_ This was almost too much for me! I was feeling just a bit numb now. Edward smiled at me and said,

"Well, Courtney, you _do_ have a special talent."

**Author's note: yay! This is like a "filler" or whatever you call some extra chapter to help get the story going. I've been going **_**unbelievably**_** slow with writing this story. (Courtney's change took what, three chapters? I can't remember.) And I'm not even to Denali yet! Oh well; you win some, you lose some. **

**I know I don't have the amazing writing skills of Stephenie Meyer. (By show of hands, who saw the whole "Edward-leaving-Bella-in-New-Moon(and-staying-away-for-as-long-as-he-did)" type of thing? I know I sure didn't!) So… please tell me what you think! Flames? I'll take those, too. (Just try to be nice -- I'm still new to fanfiction.) **

**Thank you!!!**

**ELS**


	7. Memories

**OK! I just proofread and found a TON of mistakes (I'm really sorry; I feel like such an idiot) , so here is the new and improved chapter six! (I hope it makes a bit more sense...)**

**Disclaimer: D. O. I. (If you would like an excuse as to why I haven't updated in so long, see "Author's note" at the bottom.)**

Chapter 6

"Memories"

_What a gay "talent" to have._ I thought dryly.

Alice had started to talk faster than I had heard anyone ever talk. I think that she was talking to me, but even though I was a vampire, there were some things she said that I didn't catch. Jasper laughed and turned to Edward and they started talking, but I couldn't quite hear what they were saying.

I was stunned.

I could hear their voices, and I knew that they were supposed to mean something to me, but I just…didn't get it. I sat there a tried to make sense of the utter chaos the three other vampires around me had become. There were only three of them! Three! How could they suddenly become such a handful? It was kind of mind-boggling.

They vaguely reminded me of my family on road trips to Arizona. We had a lot of relatives there and Arizona was my home state, where I was born. I really loved going there.

I looked at Alice and she was simply _vibrating_ with happiness and excitement. Although it confused me, the emotion that came through me was very powerful. It was love. I wasn't feeling love for my old (and _human_) family -- though I did love them, a lot -- but love for this new one.

As I looked to the front to see Edward and Jasper, Edward roared with the loudest laughter I had ever heard from him. Jasper leaned on the armrest next to him, turning around to face me; most likely sensing the sudden love I was feeling, and he gave me a smile. Not just any smile; he had been warm and welcoming before, but this was different. Like he was accepting me. I smiled back at him as best I could. I felt like crying!

Then, Jasper turned back to the front, Edward's laughter died down and Alice seemed to calm down, too. I felt the calm atmosphere and sensed that it probably could have been Jasper's doing. _I wouldn't blame him if he did that on purpose._ I thought to myself. The emotions might be a little overwhelming right now; I couldn't sense emotions and I had a hard time watching them all because of how they had just started talking and laughing. Alice began talking again, though, thankfully, slower so I could understand her.

"So… how did you do that, Courtney?" I contemplated my answer. After a few seconds, I replied,

"I just did what you told me to. I concentrated on a song I liked and then… I don't know…." I couldn't quite put it into words. "I guess I pretty much tried to… project it to you guys. Kind of like I wanted you to hear it, and then you did. Once it got going, I didn't really have to concentrate anymore, so I relaxed, kind of stopped focusing, and it just kept going." Edward spoke up then.

"So, if you were to try, do you think you could do it again?"

"Sure, I might be able to." I said.

"Do you want to?" Jasper asked. He probably felt my reluctance. It's not that I didn't _want_ to try again. (Although I _was_ starting to creep myself out, just a teeny, _tiny_ bit. But that wasn't really it, either.)

"Kind of." I said.

"So what's wrong?" Alice asked with a concerned look on her face. Edward was starting to look a little worried, too.

"I don't really know what song to… 'play'." I answered, embarrassed. Edward smiled and Alice and Jasper chuckled at me.

"Well if that's it, why don't you 'play' " she emphasized the word "play" like I had. "Something like…'Fergalicious'?" I never really liked that song too much, plus I hadn't heard that in a while. In fact there were even some new songs, I'm sure, that I haven't had a chance to hear. I remembered that this song was on my iPod, though. Before the Cullens, the only true contact with any sort of music was my iPod, and I hadn't found it in my pocket until just a little before I met them.

Accepting her little "challenge", I tried to focus on the song. I couldn't quite remember how I had… used my "power" before. I began to run the song through my head and then concentrated harder after a few seconds, making it loud in my head again. I focused on the lyrics and sound effects, and unlike before, I could tell that it was starting to work. Not exactly sure of what to do now that I knew it was working, (and if I was being completely honest with myself, I was proud that I had been able to do it again) I relaxed a little.

"…_so they get their pleasures from my photo._

_You can see me, you can't squeeze me.  
I ain't easy, I ain't sleazy.  
I got reasons why I tease 'em.  
Boys just come and go like seasons."_

It started out quiet and then got louder, kind of like before. By now, I let the music flow throughout the car and Alice started to sway to the beat a little, though they all stayed quiet, listening and probably trying to help me concentrate a little better. I smiled at her; I knew that there was probably a little more to the reason she had suggested this song. I looked at Edward and Jasper for their approval of my efforts. Jasper gave me a nod, his face bright, then turned and just listened to the song, keeping his face optimistic. Edward smiled approvingly at me through the rear-view mirror. I could tell that they were probably proud, also, that I did it again, but I could tell that neither of them really liked this song as much as Alice did. So, smiling, I tried something new and switched the song.

"_So delicious (it's hot, hot)  
So delicious (I put them boys on rock, rock)…"_

Then it carefully dissolved into "Little of Your Time" by Maroon 5. The drums and guitar took place of the beat of "Fergalicious", then the lyrics began.

"_I'm sick of picking the pieces  
And second-guessing  
My reasons why you don't trust me  
Why must we do this to one another?"_

Alice raised her delicate eyebrows and turned to look at me. I know it's not that big or impressive to change a song, but it was… I don't know… _cool_ that I had actually been able to do it! (And in my head, too!) I turned to see what Edward and Jasper's reactions would be. Edward was smiling at me (a _real_ smile, now) and Jasper raised his eyebrows at me and then started to laugh and clap, jokingly. Alice laughed at him and turned to me.

"Courtney, that was good!" She said.

It took more concentration to change songs, at least blend them like I just did, and I had hoped that they would be impressed -- to some degree, anyway.

"…_Just need a little of your time  
A little of your time  
To show you that I am not dead"_

I let the song finish and then I just sat there. I didn't really know what else to say. When the song finished, it was strangely peaceful. I wanted to see how much time we had, and glancing outside my window, it was pitch black. I couldn't see the road too well, even with my enhanced vision, but I saw that we were going very fast. Edward handled the car very well; I couldn't really feel the speed.…

_Here we go. _I thought. Staying in a car for a long amount of time was my big weakness. The drives to Arizona were fun; we'd get to meet up with a lot of our relatives. Throughout the duration of our vacations, we'd switch usually from Phoenix to Sierra Vista to Tucson. (Although, not necessarily in that order.) But the drive just from St. George alone took about seven hours! And besides, I preferred flying if I went anywhere.

Restless, I shifted in my seat, trying to find a more comfortable position. It didn't quite work and Jasper turned and gave me a small, teasing smile. I rolled my eyes at him, but smiled back. Then I asked,

"Are we there yet?" Edward probably knew through the medium of Jasper's mind that I was a little fidgety, and I'm sure that Alice was starting to notice. Both he and Alice smiled at me.

"Actually," he started. "It might be around morning when we get there. Sunrise, maybe." I sighed and leaned back into my seat. Then I started to slide myself forward on my seat to see how fast we were going. The speedometer read around 110 mph. _Geez! Are we going fast enough?_ I thought sarcastically. Then I looked at Edward to see if he heard me. It appeared that he hadn't, which was good; I was always a pain during a road trip.

"What time is it, now?" I asked, glancing at the clock on the dashboard. Jasper did too and said,

"Almost twelve thirty." I sighed. It would probably be roughly five, maybe six hours until the sun started to rise and we would get there. After a little bit, I looked at Alice and she was smiling at me. She didn't give me just any smile; this one told me that she probably thought of something, has something planned. I smiled back, not knowing whether or not this "plan" of hers was good or bad, but, at this point, I would do just about anything to stay occupied.

"Hey, Courtney." She said.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"How many songs do you know?" She asked with a big grin. I grinned in return.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"_A la tuhuelpa legria macarena  
Que tuhuelce paralla legria cosabuena  
A la tuhuelpa legria macarena Eeeh, macarena  
A-Hai" _

Trying to contain our laughter, Alice and I finished our dance to the "Macarena" with a little clap at the end.

She came up with a game to see how many songs I knew. I went with it, and after the first few songs I asked her just exactly why we were doing this. She said that it would help me practice and get used to using my newfound talent (plus, she just wanted to do something). She would suggest a song and I would 'play' it to the best of my ability. A few times, Jasper and Edward jumped in and suggested a few!

Thanks to them, I was getting pretty good. Every time I did it, it was easier. It didn't require much effort at all, now. For example, I could think of the song and it would be audible straight from the beginning; I didn't have to wait for it to get louder. When it stopped or if I stopped the song before it was over, it wouldn't get quieter, just stop altogether. (Not unless I wanted it to get quieter like that, anyway!) I was just working on controlling the "volume" a little better.

Before, when Edward, laughing, suggested the "Macarena", I couldn't contain myself and started the dance with it as soon as I started it. Alice started to laugh and joined me, making a highly amused Jasper turn in his seat and watch our performance. Now that it was over, me and Alice burst into giggles. We were laughing so hard, that even Jasper and Edward began laughing with us. We calmed down and took a small break. Then, with a jolt, I remembered just why I couldn't contain myself when I 'played' the "Macarena", and it saddened me a little.

It was the song that Beth and I always danced to. No matter where we were, if we heard it, we would start dancing and singing along with it. I started to dance simply out of habit.

I had to stop thinking about stuff like that. I didn't want to ruin the mood or the fun. I conspicuously glanced at Jasper and could see that he and Alice were talking, but he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye. _Oh, boy, Courtney._ I thought. _Be happy; don't make Jasper worry about you!_ Then I thought, more optimistically: _Don't ruin this; just be happy. This is like starting over - a new beginning!_ I continued to try to think happier thoughts. I don't want Jasper or anyone to start worrying about me just because I remember things; they all probably had to deal with something like this and they were fine! So I tried to talk to Edward. I slid forward in my seat and put my chin on the outer edge of the shoulder of his seat so that I could see his face as well as Alice and Jasper's.

"How's it going, Edward?" I asked as Alice and Jasper kept talking. He glanced at me and said,

"I'm alright. How are you, Courtney?" Then he smiled and added, "You're getting better at your talent." I laughed a little and said,

"Thanks." So far, I had played just about every song by Justin Timberlake, The Black-Eyed Peas, KT Tunstall, The All-American Rejects, Evanescence, My Chemical Romance, Cold Play, The Fray, and just a few more. Or at least the songs I knew. I was right when I thought that there were some that I hadn't heard of before. They suggested a few songs that were new to me.

"Hey, how much longer until we get there?" I asked. I hadn't been keeping track of the time passing us. He smiled again and said,

"It's three in the morning now, pretty close to four. Time flies when you're having fun, huh?" He chuckled.

"Yeah." I answered, smiling. Then I slid back to my seat and rested my head on the headrest. Alice and Jasper continued talking then stopped a few seconds later. After that, Alice slid back into her seat and then Jasper looked at Edward. I wasn't watching Edward, but then Jasper looked at Alice and nodded at her. I didn't think anything of their exchange, and we sat in silence for a little.

I was kind of tired, well, my mind was, anyway, from playing so many songs after recently discovering my little 'power'. It was just a little after the silence started that Jasper turned to me. He turned around in his seat again and looked at me. Then he said,

"So Courtney…." (By the way he was talking, I could tell that he was unsure of something, a bit uncomfortable.) "How are you liking this life, so far?" I was taken a bit off-guard by his question.

"Um…. It's ok, I guess. It's been easier since I've been with you guys, short as it may be." Despite me forcing myself away from my family and being _ever_ so slightly depressed about even my tiniest memories, I answered as truthfully as I could.

"Oh. That's good." He said. Then Alice asked,

"Courtney, do you remember anything about your old life? Where you come from?… Who changed you?" I internally groaned. This is the subject I was hoping they would avoid, at least for now. I knew that they were being as nice and empathizing as possible; it showed in Alice's voice as she asked the question. But it was still a tender topic with me. It was silent for a small bit as they waited patiently for me to answer. Alice was looking at me with kind, soft eyes.

"A little…. Memories come back to me every now and then; usually if something reminds me of my old friends or family, or if something feels sort of familiar, I'll remember, or have a little flashback." My response was quiet, but it was truthful. Before I answered I came to the conclusion that, even though I really haven't been with the Cullens for a while, I would be honest with them. Edward had brought me, a stranger, to his house and they had all been warm and welcoming. And - to my surprise and happiness - I was beginning to feel accepted by each of them.

"When you remember something, how clear is it?" Alice questioned.

"Well, they range from memories almost as clear as if they happened a matter of days, maybe weeks ago, to blurry images and feelings." Alice seemed to ponder that, and Jasper asked,

"Courtney…Do you remember anything about who changed you?" This one was hard to answer; mainly because this was one of the few things that I barely remembered at all. How _did_ it happen? What time was it? What was I doing? Did I see it coming or was I caught off-guard? Alice looked at me, waiting for my answer when I finally said,

"I don't know….That's one of the only things I can't really remember."

"Where did you live, Courtney?" She asked. She seemed to watch me carefully and I could see just a tiny bit of sorrow, perhaps longing in her eyes.

"I used to live in St. George, Utah." I told her. She simply nodded her head and looked away. I spent the next few minutes explaining my old life to them. I told them about my school, my work, my family and the things we did, I even told them about my old boyfriend. Then I spent a few more minutes telling them a little about Beth. At first, I wasn't sure where to start with her; there were so many things that we had done together! So I settled for telling them that we had met in seventh grade and had been best friends ever since. They didn't ask any more questions, and for that I was grateful.

"So….What about you guys? Do you remember much?" I felt kind of rude asking them about their lives, but I tried to be as polite and understanding as they were with me. I really wanted to know about where they were from and what happened to them, also. Alice looked at me and gave a small smile. This was sure to be interesting; it made me wonder if she knew that I was going to ask them abut this.

"Where to begin?…" Edward murmured. I smiled as they began.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"And we've been together even since." Jasper finished his story giving Alice a smile. Edward, Jasper and Alice had just finished telling me their stories. They started with Carlisle and Esme, since Carlisle was the one to change all of them. Well, almost all of them. Alice had no idea where she was from; she had absolutely no memories of her past. That was probably why she wanted to know if I remembered anything about my old life.

All in all, a rough summary of the history of the Cullens is: Carlisle was bit by a very old vampire, then was on his own for a long time. He eventually became a doctor. When I asked how he could handle working in a hospital they told me that he had a dark beginning where he tried to kill himself a few times, but realized that he could live off of animals, and did. From being filled with so much self-hatred, he had been able to ignore human blood and try to be good.

It was being a doctor that had first brought him to Edward. He was dying of the Spanish influenza, and probably a matter of hours to live. Carlisle was lonesome and had thought of making some sort of companion for himself, to not be so lonely. Since Edward was on the verge of death, Carlisle took him to his house and changed him there. Later, he found Esme who had fallen from a cliff. (I wouldn't have blamed her if she had jumped on purpose, though they didn't come right out and say that she did; she had run from her abusive husband (I kind of knew how she felt in that area) and later, her little baby had died.) She was near death when he found her and had decided to change her. Mainly because he had helped her before; she had broken her leg and Carlisle was about to move, but helped her. When he saw her in the hospital years later, he remembered her from when she was a young woman and couldn't quite bring himself to let her die.

Rosalie was different. She had been mugged. Alice, Edward, and Jasper told me that her fiancée had been drunk then he beat her and left her in the street to die. Carlisle found her and changed her also. Later, she found Emmett while they were hunting, and she couldn't bring herself to kill him. He had been mauled by a bear when Rosalie came upon him, and she took him to Carlisle. She asked him to change Emmett and he did. Rosalie and Emmett have been together even since then.

A few years later, Alice and Jasper met the Cullens. Jasper had been fighting in the Civil war when he was changed, and Alice woke up in an asylum. She had no idea who changed her, where to go, anything. She didn't even know what her name was! All she had was her visions, which led her to Jasper, then took them to the Cullens. They've all been together as a sort of family ever since.

Their stories were kind of sad, considering the way the ends of their human lives came for them. But it seemed like this life made up for it a little. I felt bad for each of them in different ways; Carlisle and the way he hated himself, Esme running from her husband then having her baby die, how Jasper's old "coven", or whatever he called it, was tough for him. But I felt really bad when Alice told me what she could remember -- nothing. I would be there for her as much as I could, be a comfort of some sort. Now I sort of knew why she asked me about my family and old life, and why she seemed a little bit sad when I told about what I could remember.

We sat in silence for a couple seconds when I looked out my window and realized that the sun was beginning to rise. The landscape was different; not as many huge green trees and plants. I looked at the clock at it was about five thirty. I was relieved to be out of the car soon; we were almost there. But at the same time, I was nervous; we were going to be there soon! Would they like me and accept me like the Cullens did? I'm probably going to be an unexpected visitor, and I hope that I wouldn't be treated like and unexpected and _unwelcome_ visitor.

"Are we almost there?" I asked quietly. Edward answered,

"Yep, we're on the outskirts of Denali. They live on the other side, so we'll be there in about fifteen minutes." A wave of panic went through me. I knew I was probably overeacting, but I was still nervous. Jasper smiled at me, and sent a wave of calm in my direction. Alice seemed to sense it, and put her hand on my shoulder. I looked at her and she said with sincerity,

"Don't worry about anything, Courtney. Everything will be fine." I smiled and nodded my head at her but she didn't seem very convinced.

"And besides," she added. "I've seen it." She winked at me and tapped the side of her head with her index finger. I chuckled at her and relaxed. For now, I would take their word for it and just go with the flow. Edward asked Alice something about hunting and I just sat there silent for the rest of the ride, mentally preparing myself for the upcoming events.

Finally, we passed through the town and Edward took the car down a private little road, reminding me of the way to the Cullens' house when a big mansion came into view. The Mercedes was already parked and Carlisle and Esme were getting out of the car. Somewhere behind me, I could hear the jeep and new that Rosalie's BMW was behind us, too. Bringing the car to a stop, Edward said,

"Here we go." And gave me a smile. _Yep, here we go._ I thought nervously.

* * *

**Author's note: Whoo-hoo! We finally mad it to Denali! While I'm talking, hopefully you know my excuse for not updating for as long as I have. **

**I had a ton of school junk to do, and when I had free time, the computer wasn't very available to me. (Meaning that no one would GET THE HECK OFF, and that, apparently, I'm "always on the computer!!") When I say that school got busy, I mean it. For example, one of my teachers had come sort of a seizure, freaking out the whole class while I sat there trying not to hyperventilate (I'm kind of like Courtney; I don't freak out unless other people do, and I was trying to keep my cool.) And I just turned in a book report for me English class only to find out that after we turn in the report, we receive a page of projects to do, but only have to pick three. I've finished one already, but the other two that I picked are going to be long, taking up "mucho tiempo" ("much time" or something like that)!! **

**--- I'm working on the next chapter, but I don't really know when I'll be able to update next. Just know that I'm trying and I love you!!!---**

**-ELS... Reveiw, please! (Mainly because, if you find any more mistakes (which you probably have...) I would _really_ like to know.)**

**(P.S. Crap! I have a Spanish test on Monday, too! O: )**


	8. Denali

**Author's Note: Here it is!! I give you chapter 7. **

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer rocks, it's all hers, all that stuff that says **_**Twilight**_** isn't mine!**

Chapter 7

"Denali"

* * *

Mini re-cap: 

_"Bringing the car to a stop, Edward said, _

'_Here we go.' And gave me a smile. Yep, here we go. I thought nervously." _

* * *

We got out of the car and I leaned outside the Volvo's door, not sure what I was waiting for. I watched the others as they made their way to the house. It was a nice house, it kind of reminded me of the Cullen's because of how big it was. I glanced again toward the others. They weren't very far ahead of me, but they were at the bottom of the porch steps. They were talking quietly (I guessed we were going to surprise them) and Carlisle turned to look at where I was standing. When he saw me, he smiled and gestured for me to join the group. I smiled sheepishly and caught up to them. I think that Carlisle was just making sure that that we were all there and accounted for (which, we were) but as I got to the Cullens, the door to the other "vegetarian" vampires' house opened. And then they came out greeting us. 

"Carlisle!" A pretty, strawberry-blond haired vampire called. From what I was told on the way up here, this must be Tanya, the leader of this "coven" or whatever it was called. She was pale -- they all were -- like the rest of us. After her came (who I guessed) her "sisters", Kate and Irina. Then came Carmen and Eleazar.

Everyone was talking excitedly now. I was expecting perhaps a few handshakes, an exchange of how things have been since they've last seen each other, something like that. Instead, I found myself in the middle of a big reunion. It was kind of loud, they were all talking at once, addressing each other and saying things about "how long it's been". It reminded me of a family reunion with people that haven't seen each other for a longer time than usual. I guess that they had been away from these guys for longer than I thought.

It was touching, how warm they were. I guess that what I was really expecting was a casual exchange of hello's and then to wait for them to notice me and then… be discussed or _judged_, something like that! I really wasn't sure at all what to expect!_ Maybe this won't be as bad as you've been expecting, Courtney._ I thought to myself.

Then, I'm pretty sure it was Carmen, broke away from a hug that she had given Esme, and her gaze fell immediately on me. She came over to me and offered me her hand.

"Hello, my name is Carmen." She said politely. Esme had followed her over and as I smiled and shook Carmen's hand, Esme said,

"Carmen, this is Courtney. When we met her, we discovered that she had been following our way of life and we offered to have her stay with us for a while." Carmen gave me a welcoming smile and said, "Welcome, Courtney. It's a pleasure to meet you." I already liked Carmen.

I smiled back and said, "Thank you. It's a pleasure to meet you, too." When I said that, Eleazar came and introduced himself to me. After him Kate, Irina, and Tanya also came over. When they had all said a quick hello to me, Carlisle said, "Everyone, this is Courtney. As Esme mentioned to Carmen, she has been hunting animals, and we offered to have her stay with us." He looked at the other group of vampires. Tanya spoke up.

"You're very welcome here, Courtney." She said lightly, with a smile.

Then we were all lead inside the house. Some started to talk to each other again, but it was quieter. Kate came up to me and asked me things about where I've been and how long I've been on my own for. She mentioned that she and her "sisters" have been together for many centuries - about 1,000 years. Carmen and Eleazar are roughly about 400 years old now, which is a little older than Carlisle (he's about 360 years old now).

From outside, this house reminded me of the Cullens'. You could see that it was big and open, much like theirs, except for the fact that they probably didn't have huge window for a back wall. We went through a small foyer that opened up into a nice, big living room. It was a light tan with dark wood trim. Where one of the corners of the room should have been, there was a huge fireplace. Mounted over it, there was yet another gigantic plasma screen TV, and I could see speakers for surround-sound here and there. There was nice leather furniture and a coffee table in front of the largest couch, which was in front of the fireplace and TV. There were also decorations throughout the room, for example, a painting of a landscape on one of the walls, or a nice clock on the mantle. As far as I could see, in the wall across the room behind the furniture there was an arch that opened up to the kitchen. Along that wall next to the arch, a nice, wide staircase led to an upper floor. There were fancy-looking pillars on either side of the staircase, one halfway into the wall. A little past that, there was a door in the wall that was opened to another staircase leading to a lower floor. Next to the fireplace, there was a small wooden cabinet about three feet tall. It probably held a few movies, perhaps maybe some game systems. Overall, it had a nice, homey feel to it.

I guessed that we were going to have anther sort of meeting -- we seemed to have a lot of those -- and I sat with Kate on the largest couch. This time, Tanya spoke.

"We're glad that you all made it one piece." She smiled at all of us. "Well, you know where the other rooms are, you can pick different ones to put your belongings in or stay with the ones that you liked." The way she talked about this made me think that the Cullens have previously stayed here, or at least _they_ had stayed with the _Cullens_, kind of like what we were doing now. I wondered how long we were going to stay this time.

"Courtney," she looked at me now. "This house is quite big, so you have a choice of which room you would like to stay in." Then she addressed the group again. "You may choose to be here for a while, you might end up being here for only a small amount of time, but for however long you stay for, you're all welcome here." She smiled warmly at all of us, and I was grateful to see that she even smiled at me, too. Her smile made me relax. I felt welcome here. _Well, hopefully they truly accept me._ I thought. Though the thought might have been sort of sarcastic or ridiculous, it made me relax into my seat a little more. _I think that the Cullens are beginning to accept me as a part of their family… as small a part as I may be,_ I continued. Then I glanced at Edward, suddenly wondering if he could hear me. As I tried to conspicuously glance at him, I saw that he had a small smile on his face. His eyes met mine and he gave a nod so tiny that I almost couldn't tell if he really had nodded.

That made me smile. At least Edward accepted me, a little bit, anyways.

"Well, go ahead and make yourselves at home. And if you need anything, feel free to ask or simply help yourself." She smiled at us and we all got up to retrieve our things from the cars. Jasper and Emmett ran off at vampire speed. Seeing them just take off like that made me want to run too. I ran, and the rest of the living room, the front hall, and the door flew past me. I was standing next to the Volvo now, and Jasper had the trunk open with bags on the ground next to him. Alice appeared next to me and started to grab some of her bags. She turned to me and said,

"Come on, Courtney, I'll show you where your room is." I picked up my rather large suitcase and began to follow her. She turned and smiled at me. "You'll like it - it's next to mine, and it's so cute!"

I laughed and followed her back into the house. We went through the small foyer and entered the living room. I followed Alice up the big staircase and down a hall. We passed a lot of doors and turned down another hall until she slowed down in front of one.

She turned to me and said, "Just so you know, this one is mine." Then she walked to the door next to it and said, "And this one is yours." Then she set a few of her bags down and opened the door.

I walked inside and looked around. There was a large bed that came up to my waist with a nightstand next to it. Across the room from the bed, there was a bay window with tan colored pillows. There was a computer in the corner and on the left of the door, there was a walk-in closet and an armoire next to that. Next to the armoire was a very nice TV with a DVD player. The color scheme of the room was pretty cute; it was a light blue and a soft green. The carpet was a neutral tan, the walls a soft white, but there was a light blue rug at the foot of my bed. The comforter on the bed was green with blue around the edges, and the curtains were blue with a green print on them. There were just a few things like that around my room; not too crazy, with a lot of color everywhere, but it was nice. My room really fit me, I though of it as a sanctuary. I put my bag on the bed and leaned against it. I looked around the room and then back at Alice, standing by the door still holding one of her bags. Her face was expressionless as she watched me, but her eyes were bright, expectant, still waiting to see what my reaction was. I gave her a big grin. She gave a little giggle in response.

"I really like it!" I said. She laughed a little more then said,

"I knew you would!" I remembered that she had probably already 'seen' that I would like it, maybe she even saw my reaction. Heck, she had probably already seen a lot of things that were going to happen so far! I smiled at her and walked over to her to help her carry her bags to her room. I left my suitcase on the bed; I would come back and unpack it later. We were going to be here for a while, right?

The room Alice was in was kind of like mine; it had a big closet, another TV, and she also had a DVD player. The only differences were that the bed was a little bigger (I think I had a queen-sized mattress. Alice and Jasper's room probably had a king-sized one) and the color scheme was different. The walls were just kind of a simple white, much like mine, but the bed spread was black and had a few random bunches of pink on it. The curtains on her window looked like they matched her bed spread. There were other random decorations and things like that placed about the room, and it made me think that Alice probably had a big part in decorating it. It made me smile.

Alice put two of her bags on the bed and I began to help her hang some of her clothes in her closet. As we unpacked, she started telling me of the things we could do here. It was a pretty small town, not too much to do - the hunting here was ok. One thing she said that I was hopeful about was that you could see the northern lights at night, if you were lucky. She mentioned that she was also thinking of planning a shopping trip out of town, perhaps even out of the state of Alaska. I laughed a little when she said to herself that Paris had excellent shopping, but something told me that I probably laughed too soon; she was probably serious about it. Then Esme came in.

"Hello, Alice, Courtney", she said.

I smiled at her and Alice said, "Hi Esme."

"Carlisle was discussing with Tanya about how long we were going to stay this time," she looked at me and added, "when we come, we are usually here for a year - a few years at the most." Then she continued talking to both of us, "And we are probably going to stay here for the rest of this year, perhaps a little into next year, and toward the end of summer we're going to go back to Forks." I looked at Alice. She tapped her chin as she tilted her head up, thinking. She said,

"Ok, so that gives us what… a few months?" I looked back at Esme and she said,

"Yes. It was pretty quiet, easy to stay in. And I think that we all rather liked Forks the last time we stayed there, which was a few years ago -- about a decade, give or take a year or two -- and Carlisle thought that it was a good idea if we went back again. For just a little bit at least." I looked back at a smiling Alice and she nodded her head.

"Ok. Thanks, Esme." She said. Then Esme looked at me and said,

"Is that alright, Courtney? Did you want to stay here longer? Was there something else you might want to do?" I was touched by how concerned she was about what I'd do. She seemed almost worried; I could tell that she was probably about to go on, maybe talk about whether or not I would leave, but I really wasn't planning on leaving them anytime too soon. Before she could say any more, I said,

"No, Esme, that's just fine. I don't really have any other plans, so this is just fine." I saw a little bit of relief on her face and added meaningfully, "Thanks again for letting me stay with you. I really appreciate this." I gave her a grateful smile and she warmly smiled back. Then she turned and walked out of the room. I turned to Alice and saw that we were basically done with her unpacking. She began putting her suitcases in a stack. She smiled at me and asked,

"You want me to help you with your clothes?"

"Sure." I replied. I had a few questions about where we were going when we would leave Denali. Alice headed toward her door and then followed me as I left her room and entered mine. I had forgotten some of the things that Alice and Rosalie had packed for me, so I opened the suitcase and sifted through the clothes a bit. They were really cute! I caught a glimpse of one of the tags and recalled that they were all my size. I remembered Alice's closet was pretty big -- and also that some of these clothes were from Rosalie -- and even though Alice would basically always be the same size, she could probably fit a bunch of spares sizes in there (for times like these, maybe). Rosalie too, though I was closer to her size than little Alice's.

I opened the doors to the armoire then turned to get some clothes from the suitcase. I thought of which question to ask as Alice walked into my closet with a handful of clothes and I turned and grabbed some to put into the armoire.

"So, is Forks the town we left when we came here?" I asked her.

"Yes," I heard her say from the closet. "Our house is on the outskirts of Forks." I just nodded my head and kept putting clothes away. I remembered that Alice said that we had a matter of months until we left to go back.

"What is today's date?" I asked, a little stunned as I realized more time might have passed than I have been keeping track of.

"It's December 21." Alice smiled as she came back out of the closet for more clothes. My jaw fell open then I shut it quickly. I was surprised; I knew it was around December, but I was about a week off from what I thought it really was. Christmas was in four days! I thought we had at least another week!

I wondered briefly how my family has been getting along. It made me kind of sad to wonder, so I thought of more questions to distract myself.

"How many rooms are in your house in Forks?" I asked her. I was sure that I would stay with the Cullens for a while; I was trying to get used to telling myself that I would, though I still kind of felt like I was in some way intruding on them. They honestly seemed like they wanted me to stay with them. And after all, if I _was_ going to stay, I hoped that they might have a spare bedroom for me there like the coven living here did. Alice seemed to sense my thoughts. She simply smiled and said,

"Don't worry, Courtney, we've got plenty of room." Then she walked back in the closet with a few more things in her hands. I walked back over to the suitcase and looked in.

For just one suitcase, I was a bit surprised at the amount of clothes she and Rosalie had been able to fit in there. Now, though, we were getting toward the end. I saw that all I really had left was underwear and just a few other things, and was grateful for that.

Like most, I was always a bit uncomfortable with other people seeing my underwear, and even though Alice had helped me pack it, it was sure to be a little awkward -- for me at least -- if she were to unpack it for me. I quickly picked up the rest of the clothing and put it away. Alice walked out of the closet and zipped up the empty suitcase.

"Where do you want your suitcase to go? I could put it with mine." she suggested. I thought about my options, though they were limited. I could let Alice keep track of it for me or I could put it somewhere in my room. Or maybe they had some sort of closet somewhere where they put certain things for traveling like suitcases. I decided it was best for me to just keep it -- for all I knew, I might need it sooner than expected.

"That's ok, Alice, I'll keep it with me. Thanks." I smiled at her. She nodded her head and handed me the suitcase.

"Well, I'm going to go find Jasper and make sure that he's unpacked now. So if you need me or anyone else, just come get us." She smiled at me then turned to leave.

"Ok. Thanks Alice." I called after her. She stopped her graceful little walk (almost a skip) at the doorway for an instant and gave me a warm smile. She nodded her head then turned down the hall. I turned and looked around my room for a place to put the suitcase. I thought about putting it by the armoire, but wanted to look inside my closet for possible room there. I took the suitcase with me as I walked in. I looked around at the shelves and racks of clothes, almost in awe. I didn't have too many things -- I still had some room to fill -- but this was a pretty big closet! I had never had my own walk-in closet before. I turned and looked behind me at the door and decided that I'd just set my suitcase next to it. I set it down then walked back into my room, thinking of what to do next.

I felt happy and almost mischievous; like a little kid again, where you're on vacation or you're somewhere new, and you've been left alone in a big, new, exciting place and you've been unleashed to go explore the area!

_Ha ha, mature way of putting it, Courtney_ I thought sarcastically. Smiling, I rolled my eyes at myself, went over to my bed and sat down on it. I crossed my legs and found myself thinking about all that had happened so far, much like I had at that beach.

The Cullens were very nice to me. I was surprised at their immediate kindness. Maybe this new life isn't going to be so bad after all. Alice was so nice - she was treating me like a sister! I realized that I kind of thought of her like that. Rosalie, too. Emmett, Edward, and Jasper seemed like brothers to me, now that I thought about it. And Esme was so nice and loving, like a mother, and Carlisle was kind of like a father. I smiled to myself. They really were like a family. _My new family,_ I thought. _Perhaps the coven here in Denali could be extended family or something like that…._ I just smiled to myself and looked at my hands in my lap.

…What was that smell I was following when I stopped on the beach; before I took off again and found Edward? It was kind of unpleasant, but it was surprisingly strong, which made me follow it when I first smelled it. Now that I think on it, there was just something about it…. I don't know what it was; I don't think it was anything human, though. I was pretty sure that an animal didn't have anything to do with it either, at least I didn't think so. When I met the Cullens -- and the coven here, too -- I found that vampires had a peculiar scent to them; it sort of… sweet. There was something about that scent, though -- along with being unpleasant -- that I didn't like. It almost kind of made me territorial. I realized that I was tensing up a little bit now, just thinking about it. I relaxed and decided to think of something else.

How has my family been doing so far? I missed them a lot. Do they miss me as much as I missed them? Taylor's wedding was a few months ago. If things went as planned, she was going to marry a guy named Charlie Miller. Charlie was a pretty cool guy, I liked him; even though they had met in their freshman year of high school and had been friends ever since, Taylor was lucky that she was going to spend the rest of her life with a guy as great as Charlie. How has she and Logan been doing? I wondered briefly about my brother's status. He had met a nice girl in one of his computer classes, and I wondered if he had asked her out yet. When I asked him about that, he said that he'd been thinking about it. She must have been a nice girl; when some of my friends saw him, they would tell me about how they thought my brother was cute and all, and had wanted me to get him to notice them in some way. Of course, him being my brother and everything, this was kind of awkward to me. When I thought about it, though, I had to admit that even though he could really bug me at times, he _was_ kinda cute -- I'd give him that. I wouldn't go so far as to say he was "hot", as some of my friends had so lovingly put it, but he was alright. Maybe I could find some way to check up on my family somehow, around Christmas. I wasn't sure about how I would do that, but I could figure that part out later.

I glanced at the pocket containing my iPod. Suddenly, I had a quick flashback: the sky was pretty cloudy, and me and Beth were sitting under a tree at a park. She had an ear bud in her ear and I had one in mine. We were laughing really hard and she fell over.

Then I came back to reality. I took my iPod out of my pocket and stared at it for a short moment. I put the headphones in my ears and went through the songs on it again. _Oh, the memories._ I thought, smiling. I selected the song "Can't Take It In" by Imogen Heap, from The Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack. It was definitely a different song, not one you would hear on the radio -- I suddenly wondered why I put it on my iPod in the first place -- but I let it play anyway. I went to the main menu of my iPod and once I saw 'photos', I remembered that I had in fact put some on here. Curious to what I had there and what possible memories might await me, I clicked on it. I set the slideshow timer for about two seconds per slide then let it play.

I had certain, funny icons about random things, and a picture of me and one of my old friends came up. I focused on the picture and remembered that it was taken on the last day of my eighth grade year. The friend I was with was going to move over the summer, it was the last time we'd see each other. I smiled sadly and let the slideshow go on. One icon said "Boys suck!" with the exclamation point dotted with a heart. I smiled and remembered once again that Beth had helped me get out of my relationship with my old boyfriend. I remembered that I was only a freshman at the time, but I really wish I could remember what I was thinking when he asked me out and I accepted. I had begun to see a side of him I had never before seen, and after the first week, I was sick of him. _How did I make it a full month?!_ I asked myself, amazed.

You know how when a girl and guy start going out, the girl can sometimes get kind of clingy and call him a lot, maybe plan out the future a little, and stuff like that? Yeah, well, he and I were totally switched. (At least it should have been.) He called me _at least_ three times a day after school, e-mailed me even more, and gave me the 411 on how the rest of our lives were going to be. This was only about one week after we had started going out, and he had begun to freak me out a little. For example, if things went according to his plans, I was going to be a stay-at-home mother with at least three kids, perhaps one on the way, while he was off in the navy. We were to live in a big city and he wanted to be a mechanic before he joined the navy.

That was okay -- I was fine with being a mother, and he could do what he wanted -- but, seriously, I had my own plans for my life.

I wanted to get a college degree, maybe follow in my sister's footsteps and eventually become a doctor, or do something with astrology - I had always liked to study the stars. But he was talking about doing this right when I graduated high school! He was older than me, so he would have time to get some college done, but what about what _I_ wanted?! I sure wasn't ready to settle down and start a family when I was fresh out of high school, and I wasn't sure that it was him I wanted to marry in the first place; we were only going out at the time. He freaked me out even more when he began to tell me that he couldn't live without me and crap like that. I never told anyone that I loved them unless I meant it, but it told him that I loved him because he told me that he'd be suicidal if I were in some sort of life-threatening accident, or I died, and he genuinely scared me then. It was a little after that when he started to take my stuff to get me to wrestle with him, that I just couldn't take it anymore. I told Beth about some things that were going on and confided in her as to what I should do. She seemed worried when she told me that I should definitely end it, and I knew that I wasn't wrong when I thought he was being… I don't know, kind of abusive.

These thoughts on him only lasted the two seconds that the picture showed, and when the next picture came up, I cleared my head from thoughts of him and watched as the slide show went on. There were more icons, a couple pictures having to do with a movie here and there, and I knew that the slide show was coming to an end. Before the last few pictures, one of a puppy came up. I paused the slide show to see the picture a bit longer. For an instant I was totally puzzled by this picture; where did it come from?! And in the next millisecond I realized that it was my dog Benny. Benny had died only about a year and a half ago, due to old age, and this picture was one of the ones taken when he was younger. Looking at the picture, totally stunned, a small sob escaped my throat. My heart felt heavy at remembering him and my family. Oh, how I missed them! I was so homesick now.

I pressed down on the pause button, turning off my iPod. I put the little switch to 'hold' and wrapped the headphones around it. If I was going to make sure I wouldn't have an emotional break down right now, I should probably stop remembering. For now, anyway. I looked at the half-closed door. I was going to go downstairs and see what everyone was up to, but I needed to calm myself a little.

Instead, I walked over to the computer in my room and turned it on. Maybe I would get onto YouTube or some other website like that, and look up the new songs that had come out. This was a pretty fast computer which was good, and as the desktop loaded, I clicked on the Internet Explorer icon. I supposed that I might as well find new songs, discover all the ones that had come out since I had last listened to the radio or updated my iPod. I smiled as the page loaded.

* * *

**AN: Hi, sorry this took forever! The only time I could really work on this was over weekends and stuff like that. In case you're wondering when I'm going to get to the good part of this whole story, just know that this is all just the beginning, and that I have plans…. Big plans!!! (No, I'm not crazy, just give the story a chance, it's just barely getting started! Plus, I've had a horrible case of writer's block, that's why it's not as great as I wish it could be.)** **Anyways, chapter 8 should be up in about and hour, maybe more.**

**Please Review!**

**-ELS**

**P.S. In case you're interested, there's a poll on my profile - go check it out!**


	9. Tanya

**Author's note: ooh! Here's another chapter! **

**Disclaimer: You know that I don't own it. **

* * *

Chapter 8 

"Tanya"

I chuckled as the three so-called vampires in the music video hypnotized some girls to walk toward them and they began to dance. When I was done searching for new things, I wanted to look for the music videos. When I got on the website for videos, I realized that I had never seen "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me" by Fall-Out Boy. Watching that now, I saw that it starred vampires, which was cool, but they were way off! I don't think that we could be killed or hurt so easily! I laughed a little more as Pete Wentz battled a choreographed fight with other "vampires", defeating them with loud kicks and punches. I closed the video and went back to my music file.

When I had gotten on the computer, I had first started a search of the best and latest songs of 2007 and came up with a ton of them. Logan had taught me a few useful skills with computers so, using the knowledge he gave me, I had opened a new file on the computer, and found a couple different downloadable websites that allowed me to download free music. I thought of a website that I had once used for getting music and skimmed through the links and packages until I found it. I remembered that when I got it I had to pay a sort of fee for it, and as I looked for a price next to it, I saw that the price had raised since then.

Logan told me that there were types of computer hacking that allowed you to get things like that for free, but you had to "cover your tracks", so to speak; if you were caught, you would most likely have to pay a fine or be charged with illegal computer hacking. He mentioned the 'back doors' then (even though he said he wasn't supposed to) but didn't say more than that.

Biting my lip, I clicked on the package for the website and skimmed through the information on what you would get. It was definitely more expensive than the price I had gotten for it a while ago, and I wasn't about to go and ask Carlisle or Esme or Tanya or anyone else for money to have access to a website priced like this! I wasn't sure how to go about hacking into this website. I knew that I was going to try, but it would be hard to 'cover my tracks' - how did you do that, anyway?!

I went back to the page I found the link on and highlighted it. I had absolutely no idea how to do this, so I randomly typed in a key combination. The highlighted words blinked but didn't do anything else. I furrowed my eyebrows and tried another key combination. From the speakers next to my computer screen I heard a 'ding' and a little pop-up thing came up. I scanned what it said and found that I had successfully hacked into downloading it for free! I clicked 'Yes' on the option for downloading it and answered a few other things. It asked me again if I wanted to download it and again, I clicked 'Yes'. A little bar began to fill with red, making it's way to the right end of it. When it had completely filled, another pop-up thing came up and said that there was a shortcut on my desktop to the site. The mini pop-up thing closed and I stared at the computer screen for a few seconds.

"Holy crap." I whispered. "I just did it!" I had just hacked into getting a website for free… Logan would be so proud! I smiled to myself as I thought of what his reaction would be.

Then I stopped; it made me kind of sad again. And besides, I think that what I just did was illegal! _Holy cow._ I focused on the screen again. _Maybe now is a good time to cover my tracks!_ I thought nervously. How did I even do that?! I closed the window with the page of downloadable websites and stared at my desktop. There was the icon for downloading music, but was closing the page like I just had good enough?

I began to turn my computer back off. _Maybe I'm overreacting as usual_ I thought. _But it's worth not getting caught for this… better safe than sorry._

After my computer turned off completely, I turned it back on. I remembered a few titles or artists of the songs I found when I searched for new ones, and got to downloading.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"_Shawty had them apple bottom jeans (jeans)  
Boots with the fur (with the fur)  
The whole club was looking at her"_

I bopped my head to the beat of the song. It was Low by Flo Rida and T-Pain.

Before I heard any of the songs, I searched new ones, downloaded them and put them in the new file I had reserved for music on my computer. Now, I was listening to the new songs (getting rid of the few I didn't like) while making sure I had gotten all of the songs that were currently on my iPod.

If we got presents for Christmas, all I wanted was a charger for my iPod -- it's current supply of power wasn't going to last much longer -- and I was going to make sure I could put new songs on it, too. I liked a lot of these new ones!

I like a very wide range of music; rock, pop, hip hop, heavy metal, alternative rock, indie, emo, punk, and even classical. You could get me to listen to just about anything , with the exception that I only like a few country songs and, in all honesty, if I listened to it for too long, rap tended to bore me after a while.

In my little hunt for new songs, I had found a lot! Some of my new favorites were Kiss Kiss by Chris Brown, Misery Business by Paramore, Take You There by Sean Kingston, and Love Song by Sara Bareilles and a couple more. And of course I still loved Apologize by Timbaland and One Republic, The Way I Are, Holiday, Le Disko, Time Is Running Out by Muse, Linkin Park songs, and a lot more!

I looked at the light green clock on my wall with little blue flowers on the clock's face, and saw that it was almost three in the afternoon! I had completely lost track of time - I've been on the computer now for _at least_ four hours! Closing up the windows, I decided that I'd had enough computer time for now.

I stood up and looked around my room. _I could watch TV,_ I thought when my eyes fell on the TV on top of the armoire. _No, don't be all anti-social. Go see what's going on._ I told myself.

I headed towards my door and looked both ways down the hall. I didn't see anyone. I headed down the hall, went around a corner, and headed down that hall and to the stairs. When I went down the stairs, I found Esme and Carmen talking on the couch. As they continued talking, Esme smiled and nodded at me. I smiled and nodded back at her and Carmen turned around.

"Hello, Courtney." She said. I smiled and said,

"Hi." Carmen turned back to Esme and they continued talking, and I walked into the kitchen. It was a pretty, shiny, nice kitchen with granite countertops and all. I continued through the kitchen and past a door. I went through another arch that opened up to some huge garden room. It kind of reminded me of the Reptile Room from "A Series of Unfortunate Events", just not quite so big. I strolled into the room and glanced around myself as I went. Even though it was the dead of winter in Alaska, they still had a few healthy-looking plants and shrubs growing. It was very peaceful in this room. I turned around and walked back out. As I passed through the kitchen again, I saw the door and opened it. It was a garage.

The lights were on, and Rosalie's BMW was in there. I went down the little steps and walked closer to her car; someone's legs were coming out from under the BMW! I went to the side of her car and ducked down to see who was there. Rosalie turned her head and smiled at me. Even with a few smudges of grease on her face and her hair coming out of her bun, her beauty was stunning.

"Hi, Courtney." she said. She turned back to what she was doing and kept tightening something. Or was she loosening it?

"Hi, Rosalie?" I said. "What are you doing?" She kept cranking as she replied,

"I'm fixing my car."

"What's wrong with it?" I asked her. Did something happen on the drive that did something to her car?

"Oh, there's nothing wrong; I just like playing around with the parts and stuff." Oh. Rosalie was kind of like a mechanic.

"Oh, that's cool…. Is it fun?" It seemed like it would be fun to configure the parts of a car and things like that.

"Yep. Sometimes, with the right parts, you can go faster or break quicker." She said.

"Well that's cool." I didn't really know what else to say, so I decided to leave her to her fun. I straightened back up and said, "See you later, Rosalie." I turned to leave and I heard,

"Bye, Courtney." from under the car. I laughed silently to myself and went back into the kitchen. I leaned against the counter as I thought of what to do now. _I wonder if anyone's gone hunting_ I thought to myself. _Within the next couple days, I could probably use a hunting trip._ I looked out the window and thought abut when the next time I could go hunting was. I wonder if the Cullens hunt in groups. Thinking about hunting brought back yet another memory.

It made me think of the man I killed after I had woken up from my 'change'. What had happened when I was changed? Who did it? When Edward, Alice and Jasper were telling me their stories of how they were… made into vampires, they told me that Alice had woken up alone. That the one who changed her had left and that that was a weird thing. Why was I left alone too? I knew that you had to bite someone in order to turn them into a vampire, but you must have some sort of purpose for biting them other than just to feed. It was a mystery to me why I was bitten. It couldn't have been something like love that I was bitten and not… _eaten._ Seriously, what are the odds of THAT happening? I certainly wasn't in love with any vampires, and no vampire loved me… to my knowledge, anyway.

I remembered that me attacking that one guy was an accident and I briefly wondered if _I_ was an accident. _Maybe the one who turned me just caught themselves before they could finish the job, but not before the effects of the damage._ I thought. I was right on the line where you were saved from dying, but you weren't at the same time. Wait, what? I tilted my head to the side as I tried to make more sense of that. _I'm saved, but I'm __not__ saved?… Courtney, that doesn't make any sense!_ I just rolled my eyes at myself and tried to clear my head.

I pushed myself off of the counter and headed back to the living room. This time, I went past the stairs going up, and went to the door to the stairs. _I wonder who is down here._ I thought to myself as I began down the stairs. These stairs were pretty wide, and I saw that once I got to the bottom, it opened up into a large living room about the size of the one upstairs. Except for this one had a big entertainment system!

A large couch and two smaller couches were surrounding a small round, glass coffee table on a big rug. Behind the couches on the far wall from me, there were three computers with chairs. A small distance from the computers was a circular, dark wooden table with a few chairs around that. In the far corner of the room, there was a fancy-looking pool table with a rack of cue sticks and chalk along the wall behind it, the balls in the pockets on the table. _Oooh, fancy._ I thought. To my right, there was a hall going farther into this lower floor, but I could check that out later.

I looked back to the couches. Emmett and Edward were playing a game of Halo or something, Jasper was watching their game, sitting on the left side couch, and Carlisle was sitting at a computer with Tanya. It looked like they were discussing something. Smiling, I looked back at Edward, Emmett, and Jasper and walked over to them. I leaned on the back of the big couch and watched their game. They were pretty good. I had only ever played Halo once, and I was horrible!

I didn't want to cross in front of them and block their view, so I braced my hand on the couch (careful not to damage it) and tried to lightly jump over it, not disturbing anyone. I landed in front of the couch, behind the small table and sat down. Jasper looked at me and said,

"Hey, Courtney."

"Hey Jasper", I said, giving him a slight smile. He turned his head back to the game. "Halo?" I asked him, even though Edward and Emmett were mere feet away from me. I looked back at them, securely engaged in combat.

"Yep." he replied. "They've been going at it for almost three hours, now." I smiled. There were more war sound effects, a very large explosion and I think that the game was over for one of them because Edward put his controller down and said,

"And I think we should either stop playing and do something else, or play a different game." He looked at Emmett and raised his eyebrows. Emmett, a little louder than usual, simply said,

"Oh, so you give up?" Edward just smiled, shook his head and said,

"I never give up, I'm just kind of tired of this game. We've been playing for three hours now, Emmett." Then he glanced at a clock on the wall. Emmett seemed only mildly surprised.

"Hmm, really?" He said, also looking at the clock. Edward stood up and said,

"Someone can take my place." He looked at me and winked, giving me and expression that I read as, 'Show him what you got, Courtney'. I smiled at him and watched him walk over to Carlisle and Tanya, still at the computer. I looked at Emmett who was now going through a stack of games next to a small cabinet with many more in it. I looked at Jasper who was also watching Emmett go through the games, his arms folded.

"What are you going to play, Emmett?" I asked, curiously. Maybe he could teach me how to play something, or we could have another round of racing.

"I think I'm going play Resident Evil 4." he said, turning a game over to look at the back of it. I watched as he put the game in and the menu loaded. It started out with a small video clip with come information giving you the low-down on what was happening and what you had to do. Basically, there was a guy named Leon who was supposed to safely retrieve the president's daughter and safely take her home. After the little intro, you were good to start playing. I watched as Emmett took this blond guy (Leon) around an old abandoned village and choose that as my time to ask.

"Hey Emmett, do you think you could show me how to play that?" He didn't look away from the TV but said,

"You don't know how to play this?"

"Not very well." I replied, sounding a bit embarrassed.

"Well, come sit down and I'll give you some pointers." he said, smiling. I walked around the small table and sat down my him. "It's really simple, you just have to lead him around and shoot anything that poses a threat."

He handed me the controller and began instructing me on where to go and what to do. "Now, there's going to be a zombie up here, so you just need to hold down the right trigger to aim and then press 'A' to shoot."

"Ok", I said, trying to sound just a teensy bit unsure but like I was trying to hide that. I saw him smile out of the corner of my eye, and knew that I had fooled him. Yes, I had to admit that I was pretty bad at this, but with Emmett's help, I would become a pro. Emmett seemed to like competition, and maybe I could surprise him and eventually be as good as he was. That would probably take some practicing, though.

I walked the game character around a bit aimlessly, waiting for when I would have to shoot the "zombie" or whatever it would be when it came. I found it and heard it shout something in another language -- which I recognized as Spanish -- and then it came at me. I aimed and shot, killing it, and looked at Emmett. He nodded and I just smiled and I turned back to the game.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We were a couple different levels later, I had yet to beat this giant fish-thing called _Del lago_. I got into the boat for the second time and drove around the lake a little until the fish showed up.

"Oh, boy, here we go." I muttered to myself. I couldn't beat the fish the first time around but I knew what it was that I had to do this time, and I was prepared. I kind of felt like an idiot, though; my reflexes were enhanced, helping me a lot, and the tips from Emmett were nice too. But if I couldn't beat it this time, and with all the help I was getting, I'd feel kind of stupid.

The rope attached to the boat was now on _Del lago_, I just had to keep throwing harpoons at it and avoid the pieces of driftwood threatening to knock the boat over. I tossed the first and almost missed. A huge chunk of tree root floating on the water was coming at me fast. I swung the boat around it and smiled to myself. It would be easy now. I leaned forward and began throwing harpoons in the game again. I threw one, then another, and then another. Emmett chuckled and I threw another one. I tried one more and was successful in killing the overgrown fish. The game saved and I leaned back and smiled at Emmett.

His laughing got louder and he said,

"Nice job, Courtney…. You are learning well, grasshopper." I laughed at him and said,

"Thanks." I put the controller down and stood up. "I'm gonna take a little break, ok?"

"Yeah, that's fine." he said, calming his laughter. He picked up the controller and asked,

"Do you mind if I play for a few minutes?"

"No, that's fine." I said.

I stretched my arms out in front of me then put them down. I tilted my head just a millimeter to the side. I didn't really need to stretch; I'm a vampire. _Oh well, probably just a habit._ I thought. I smiled and walked away from my previous spot on the floor. I kept an eye on what was happening on the TV screen and walked around to the back of the couch to lean on it.

"-- I know! But I told her --" I heard light laughter and turned around to see Tanya telling Edward and Carlisle something. Carlisle was at the computer, turned away from the computer screen, facing Edward and Tanya who were seated at the table. Tanya was telling them something about a past event that had probably happened while the Cullens were gone. I wondered why I hadn't heard them laughing before, but let it go. Something seemed off.

I focused on Tanya's face. Sure she was a nice girl, very pretty, too. But she was doing something different; she had her head slightly cocked to the side as Edward gave a short reply, and then she started laughing again. In my opinion, she was giggling and looking too interested in what was going on for this to be a casual conversation.

I studied Edward's face. It was polite and open, yet sort of blank. He had a kind smile on his face as he listened to Tanya. They looked comfortable as they were talking, but from what I was seeing, it didn't completely seem like they were just hanging out, talking.

Something on the computer screen caught Carlisle's attention so he turned back to the computer screen. As I kept watching Tanya and Edward, it finally dawned on me what seemed kind of weird about this.

_Oh, my gosh…._ It was partly an accident that I had let my guard down, but I also did it partly on purpose. In all honesty, I was trying to just stand off to the side, be out of the way as they were talking. But with my next thoughts, I tried to let my mind be open - let Edward read my thoughts even though it might be a little distracting to him.

_Is she -- is Edward -- are they… ohmigosh!_

I kept carefully watching Edward's face as I "accidentally" let him hear my thoughts, seeing if his expression changed. It did. Something flickered in his face but I wasn't quite sure what it was. I smiled; it was like I was back in high school, teasing Beth about something she thought for sure that I didn't know about!

_Are you guys -- wait a minute, whoa!_ I laughed silently to myself as I saw that he realized that I saw what was going on. He seemed a bit surprised or frustrated -- I couldn't tell yet.

_Is she FLIRTING with him?!_ I watched in amusement as Edward tried to focus on what Tanya was saying, trying to conceal the difficulty I was giving him. I couldn't blame him; I had totally lost rack of what she was saying! I laughed a bit harder, trying not to burst out laughing.

I was starting to feel kind of bad for doing this to him, though. When I first saw them, I could tell that he was just a _bit_ uncomfortable. And if _I_ could see that she was interested in him, that probably meant that at least one other person in this house had noticed. I tried to stop laughing before anyone else noticed what was going on - what I was doing . I turned around to see where Emmett was in the game and to make sure that both he and Jasper were still over in their little world with the video games. As I glanced at Jasper, he turned his head and gave me a knowing smile with a twinkle in his eye. I smiled mischievously back at him.

The emotions coming from me -- and maybe Edward too -- had probably alerted him as to what was going on. I looked back at Edward and Tanya and decided to have mercy on him. If he knew what I was doing -- and he most likely did -- he wouldn't like it. And I didn't want to be mean to him; I'd had my fun, so I decided to give it a rest.

Picking up from where my thoughts had left off, still giving him a bit of a hard time, I thought, _Wow, she IS flirting with Edward!_ Edward didn't really respond, but I could tell from the way that he shifted his weight in his seat that he definitely heard me. I smiled.

…_Do you need help, Edward?_ He was still listening to Tanya, but he perked up just a tiny bit; I was probably the only one to notice - me and Jasper, perhaps. I tried to explain with my feelings (through my thoughts) that I would somehow "save" him from Tanya's flirting if he needed me too.

_Do you want me to leave you alone?_ He didn't respond. If anything, he froze in place. _Can I join your conversation?_ I tried to find an alternative since -- what I read from his body language -- he didn't seem to want me to leave them alone. He relaxed a bit when I asked him that last question; it seemed to make things better. _Do you want to be left alone, maybe want me to get you out of there?_ I tried to make up for making him so uncomfortable just seconds before. Still looking at Tanya, he nodded and said,

"Yes, yes." I had completely lost track of where their conversation was going, and I couldn't tell if he was agreeing with something Tanya had said or if he was answering me. Maybe it was both.

But, like I had been, I kept carefully watching him. I saw that he was not only talking to Tanya but also answering my thoughts when his eyes quickly flashed to mine then back to Tanya. I chose then to sort of "close my mind" again. I thought, _Alright, how am I going to do this._

As I thought of something to say to interrupt them, but still be polite and innocent in my mission, I turned around and saw that Emmett was still into the video game, but Jasper was still watching with a slight smile on his face. From what he could sense from me and Edward, he could probably tell that I was about to intervene. He gave me a small nod and turned back to the game. _That's it!_

Having thought of something to say, I turned back to them. I walked a little closer and said,

"Hey guys, have you played that? It's so much fun! Emmett's really good!"

They looked up at me and Edward said,

"Oh, hi Courtney. Tanya was just telling me of a hunting trip they went on while we were gone." My idea of talking about the video games was kind of stupid, so I changed subjects, with Edward's help.

"Oh, hey, speaking of which," I walked a little closer and stood behind one of the chairs. I rested my hands on it as I continued. "When do you think the next time an opportunity for hunting might be available?" _Ha!_ I thought. Not only was I helping Edward, I was also getting good information for myself at the same time.

As I was talking, Carlisle turned around. He spoke up and said, "You can go whenever you like, Courtney."

"Does it matter where I go?" I asked.

"As long as you try to stay a distance away from towns and things, it doesn't matter." He reassured me. I internally cringed; I really should steer clear of populated areas. Hopefully, the next time we go somewhere, I'll be able to contain myself a little better.

"Ok, thanks." I smiled at Carlisle and then quickly glanced at Edward. _Come on, that's your cue._ I thought. He probably didn't hear it, though; I wasn't quite willing my thoughts to him like I was before.

"When are you going, Courtney?" he asked, casually making a move to stand up.

"Uh, later tonight, maybe."

"Do you mind if I go with you?" He fully stood up. "I could use a little hunt, just in case." He then looked at Tanya and said, "It was nice talking with you, Tanya." She nodded to him and said,

"You, too, Edward." I smiled at her and she gave a smile back. It was still friendly, but I think that she didn't quite like me interrupting their conversation.

I didn't really know where I was going or what I was going to do just now, but I turned and walked up the stairs. Edward was almost to the top already.

I guess I was going to get ready to go hunting.

* * *

**Author's note: Ello! I hope you like it! If you want, please give me some tips and Review!!!**

**-ELS**


	10. Hunting

**Disclaimer: D.O.I. **

* * *

Chapter 9 

"Hunting" 

I sat in my room watching the seconds tick by on the clock. I was sitting on the seat in my window, facing my room. I was going to go hunting in about and hour, or so I'd told Edward. I had been pretty bored since then, so I began to watch time go by. 

It was funny how slowly it seemed to pass for me now; I was much faster, my reflexes were quicker and, strangely, my thoughts were amazingly fast too. In all of one second, maybe two, I could recall or think about a lot that had happened. Time seemed to pass so unevenly now. 

I simply sat in silence and listened to the clock. As I watched the clock, I realized that I was also picking up other noises. If I just listened, I could hear everyone in the house stirring, doing their normal, daily things. I could hear quiet murmurings of conversation going on throughout the house, and I could even hear a TV on somewhere. I smiled, the TV must be Emmett or Jasper, all the way downstairs. I tried to see if I could hear anyone else. I couldn't tell who was where or what they were doing or saying, so I tried to listen to different parts of the house. I tried to focus on the left part of my room toward the floor which, to my knowledge, was where Rosalie might be, working on her car in the garage. I didn't hear much, but after about two minutes, I thought I heard a tool clanking and knew that was probably her. 

I looked back at the clock. At the most, only three or four minutes had passed. I got off of my seat and headed toward my door. I would go see Rosalie. 

I went down the two halls, made it to the top of the stairs when I just broke into a run and went the rest of the way until I made it to the garage doorway. Rosalie had the hood of her M3 open and was bending over something next to the engine when I walked over to the counter closest to the car. There was a big toolbox open with different tools spread out over the counter. I leaned against the counter and watched Rosalie. Perhaps I could pick up a few things while watching her work on her car. 

"Hi Rosalie." without looking up, she replied, 

"Hi Courtney." 

"Mind if I watch you?" 

"Whatever, it's fine…"she put down a greasy rag and a tool she was holding, examined more closely what she was bent over, and added, "Could you hand me a gear wrench?" I turned around to look for it. I was right when I thought that I could learn a thing or two about cars, just watching her; I didn't know anything about them, and I wasn't even quite sure what a gear wrench was. As if sensing that, she also said, "It's a silver one that looks like a small tube is coming out of the end." I found it and handed it to her. 

"How long have you been working on cars, Rosalie?" I asked her. 

"A few years." she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Sometimes it's kind of relaxing; a hobby that kind of helps pass time." I smiled and nodded. Being a vampire, you had nothing BUT time! 

We kept talking for a little more, and every now and then she would ask me to hand her some certain tool. The subjects of our conversation ranging from how to speed up the cars, which car was the best for you, the things to be looking for when you buy a car, and she eventually told me how to hotwire a car. When she finished telling me the best way, she said that she shouldn't have said anything, but she didn't care if I only used her methods when I really needed to. Other than that, every now and then she would sort of test me - ask me what I thought was best for the parts she was dealing with for which scenario. It was pretty fun to talk with Rosalie; we were sort of bonding, in a way. After a while I asked her, 

"So, are you the only one that works on cars?" By then I had walked over to her side and was standing next to her. I had a better look at what she was doing - it was very interesting. I used to wonder how mechanics knew what parts go with what, which way to put it on and just… things like that. And I was right when I thought that I would learn something; it was like I had just entered auto mechanics 101 with Rosalie! 

Before she could answer, I heard Edward's voice come from behind us, Edward was walking over. He said, 

"Actually, I like to work on cars, too. Sometimes Rosalie and I work together." Rosalie just nodded in agreement. 

"Hi Edward," I said. 

"Hi Courtney." he replied. I looked back at what Rosalie was doing and she asked him, 

"Hey, were you going to work on the Volvo?" 

"No, actually, I came in here to ask Courtney something." She just nodded again and kept working. I looked at him and he continued talking. "Are you almost ready to go?" I looked down at what I was wearing: I still had on the red shirt, khaki pants and polka-dot shoes Alice let me wear. Edward was now wearing a pair of jeans and a white button-up shirt, a little more casual than what he had on before. 

"Should I change?" I asked, confused. Was it necessary to change when you hunted? 

"No, sometimes I don't usually change, but it's more comfortable." I bit my lip, deliberating. He added, "You don't have to change if you want to. And I came down to see if you were ready because you said that you wanted to leave at about this time." He watched my face as I thought. 

I looked at my shoes once again; they wouldn't stay on after a while if I kept running at vampire speed. I didn't really want to ruin anything that I had been given by Rosalie or Alice to wear -- after all, there's always the possibility that they might not want me to stay with them much longer after staying with everyone here in Alaska; that was probably just common courtesy… even vampires had a sense of _that_. Making my decision, I told him, 

"Ok, I'm going to go get ready. I'll meet you by the door." He nodded and I ran out of the garage all the way up to my room. I stopped in my doorway and looked around my room. 

_Where would one of my t-shirts be?_ I wondered. I walked over to the armoire and opened it _T-shirt, t-shirt, t-shirt_. Not seeing any, I closed it and ran into my closet. I saw a light blue sleeve showing among the clothes hanging up and grabbed it. It was a button-up, three-quarter sleeve shirt, but it looked comfy enough. I took it off the hanger and quickly changed into it. I looked on one of the many shelves in my closet, looking for another pair of pants and saw some light wash jeans. I grabbed them from the shelf and put them up to my waist, seeing if they would fit ok. Not really caring, I quickly changed into them too. I left my other clothes on my closet floor, kicked my shoes off next to them, and looked for a different pair of shoes. I saw a pair of bright white tennis shoes and put them on. 

I walked out of my room and stood in the hallway. I shut my door and went left, to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. I looked at my reflection. I was still pretty, a little taller, hair longer -- nothing much had changed to my appearance… since I became a vampire. My hair was still brown, everything other than my pale skin was the color it used to be. Even my eyes. 

I opened a few drawers, looking for a brush. In the second one on the left, I found a bunch of hair accessories. I grabbed a black hair elastic. _I might need this,_ I thought. I opened the last drawer, the farthest on the left, and found a variety of brushes and combs. I quickly ran the brush through my hair and then whipped it up into a ponytail into the elastic. Some of my bangs still hung in my face -- that hadn't really changed -- they were pretty long, grown out a little. 

I ran down the halls, was about halfway down the stairs, and thought _What are you running for? It's not like he's gonna be mad for waiting for you. _Then slowed to a normal, human walk. I made my way down the rest of the stairs and continued on through the living room to the front door. There I found Edward and Esme talking. I smiled and walked up to them. 

"Hello, Courtney." Esme said, turning to greet me. "I see that you and Edward are going hunting." I nodded my head. "Would you mind if I joined you?" I saw that she hadn't changed, but it wasn't really a surprise. Esme looked fine in what she was wearing, and from what I understood of Edward telling me about changing to go hunting, we were kind of going for the comfortable, easy to move in type clothes. 

I nodded my head, my smile widening and told her, "Of course you can, Esme. The more the merrier, right?" I wondered briefly if that was the right thing to say about hunting -- it felt kind of weird to say that -- but Esme simply laughed and nodded her head. 

"Yes, the more the merrier, Courtney." She said. Edward smiled a crooked smile. _Hmm. He's got a cute smile._ I thought. I watched Edward's face to see if he heard me, as a test. Nothing changed, so he hadn't been hearing my thoughts. That was good, I guess. 

"Well, we should be off." Edward said. He opened the door and walked out. Esme gestured for me to go, a smile still on her face. I smiled in return, nodded my head to her and followed Edward. 

"You've never really hunted in a group before have you, Courtney?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder at me. I shook my head no. "Well, it's really the same as hunting alone, you just kind of meet up when you're done and go back home…. Nothing really elaborate about it." He said. 

"What if you somehow end up going after the same thing?" I asked him. I really liked the Cullens and the coven that we were staying with right now, but I still got kind of edgy around other vampires, and I guess that being a newborn, I do get kind of territorial. And if I was hunting, letting my (vampire) self go wild for a bit and someone else was going for _my_ prey…. I couldn't really explain it, but it made me sort of mad, even to think about it. _Defensive_. The voice in my head whispered. Yes, I guess it made me defensive - very defensive. 

Edward seemed to think about that. "You know, that's never really happened before. We all go off in different directions, usually. Just go for something else if someone's got scent of something before we fully make that transition of 'losing' ourselves to hunt ." As he answered he seemed trouble just a little trouble with wording some of that. 

I couldn't really blame him. I could kind of tell that he was avoiding the words like "vampire"; I usually only though the word, it seemed… I don't know, weird to use it out loud. Probably because it was true; that I _was_ a vampire! Ever since my "change", I had been experiencing feelings I had never felt before, and I suddenly realized that some were probably shut off from me - I might not feel them again. 

_That's only a "might", Courtney._ I thought. _It's not like it's no longer impossible to feel some things. _

I realized that here I was again, thinking about the past being sort of a painful thing, and sort of trying to avoid thoughts on the subject of being a vampire! I shook my head a little and focused on the present once again, trying very hard not to think. 

Esme spoke up, altering the subject a little. "Which way should we go?" We continued on in one direction, with trees beginning to surround us here and there. 

"I think that if we keep going this way and then head a little to the right, we'd be going east," Edward said. He then added, "And then we could avoid the town more easily." He glanced at Esme over his shoulder and gave her a slight nod. I wondered if they were having a little mind conversation. What was I saying, of course they were! I decided to just forget about it and kept walking. 

We were walking in a funny-shaped zigzag thing of a line. Edward was in front, I was about two steps behind him, off to his right shoulder. And Esme was walking a little behind my left shoulder, more like she was lining up with Edward. I looked up at the sky. We were directly under some cloud cover, and even though the trees were blocking my view, I could tell that the sun was beginning to set in the west. 

The sun was weird here in the north; it was too low in the sky. My brief thoughts were interrupted by Esme's voice. 

"Should we start running?" She asked. Edward slowed his pace dramatically and said, 

"Yes, I think this is a good point to start running." So he picked up his pace again, escalated into a human-paced run, and got faster until we were going at more of an effortless 'vampire' run. 

I tried to keep up with them by keeping pace with Edward by almost mirroring his footsteps. And I made sure that Esme was behind me by keeping my ears open, listening to any noise she would make. We ran for a while until Edward slowed down once again, but still at a very fast run. 

"Alright," he said, slowing down a little more. "Right now, we're just a few miles away from the house, so we're ok to go hunt." Then he seemed to be mainly talking to me. "Like I said before, this is just like normal hunting; you can basically go where you want to, keep going straight or branch off somewhere else, whatever you choose to do; just make sure to keep away from any people." He said. 

I felt that Esme's presence was gone behind me and I glanced over my shoulder to check. Indeed, she was gone. I looked back at Edward and realized that it was nothing to get alarmed about; she was merely doing what we were supposed to be doing on this trip - hunting. Edward glanced at me and I smiled at him. I waved goodbye and then came to a complete stop. I watched as Edward kept going and I found myself surrounded by trees. 

This was much colder, though. There was snow and as I looked around, the forest seemed kind of gray to me. The trees were frosted, the bark was definitely gray, and the sky was darkening still. As I looked at the sky, I had a small flashback in the back of my mind: I was inside a warehouse thing, looking outside through an open garage. The sky was about the same dark blue-black color with stars beginning to dot the sky, there were just a bunch of trees a little bit away from the door and I had the feeling like… I was being watched. 

My mind snapped back to reality again and I shivered, but not from the cold. 

The cold didn't even really affect me at all; my breath didn't become vapor in the freezing air, I didn't need a coat. Heck, I probably didn't even need the shoes I was wearing!! That thought made me strangely mad; and with sad, frustrated realization, I now knew why saying the word "vampire" out loud or something that might imply it was sort of uncomfortable to me. 

I could never change! I would never get more mature than I was now, never really grow up, never go back to be with my family, never see my friends ever again! I could never _really_ be married, I would never have children, never have a family of my own! I would never, ever have a normal life, ever again! And everyone else I knew in my "_previous life_" would. They'd grow older, face normal situations, get married, have a family, and then eventually die the normal way!! 

But me? Nope, not me! I was freaking immortal!

All I had from that life was a dirty pair of jeans, dirty and _ripped_ shirt and jacket, and my sad, little iPod that was my most precious, treasured possession now! 

And just look at what I was doing! I was out in a frozen wasteland outside a small town in Alaska, looking for _food_!! Oh, no, not the regular food that you would eat, I was looking for blood!! Yes, I needed _blood_ to survive! 

There was a small, rational part of me in the back of my mind that spoke up and peacefully told me, _Courtney, calm down, you're not the only one to go through this._ But I was far beyond reasoning with myself right now. 

True, not only was _I _searching for sustenance in the liquid form, but there were _two_ others in this forest looking for it, too. Two others! And there were at least ten more of "_my kind"_ at a house a few miles away from where I now stood. 

I started growling deep in my throat then felt a bit surprised at myself. I could feel a trace of shock on my face, but pushed the surprise away. 

_Let me growl_, I thought, the rational part of me seeming to give in a little. _Let it go, Courtney,_ I thought fiercely to myself. And then a feral snarl ripped from my throat, both only slightly surprising me now, and cutting through the silence I was previously in. _Let it go, Courtney, just let it go! You're different now, you don't even recognize yourself,… you're a MONSTER!_

And with the thought of "monster" going through my head, I gave a loud, frightening roar and swung my arm out to hit the tree on my right side. 

I heard the '_crack_' that the tree made as my hand made contact with the bark, splitting the wood. I turned my head and watched with a tiny trace of awe and almost fear towards myself as the tree, that could probably be anywhere from one to two hundred years old and somewhere from four to five feet thick, begin to split and then fall to the ground, broken. 

I could feel something in my eyes now, like when your eyes adjust to light and the pupil adjusts to how bright or dim it is. Sure, you probably couldn't quite feel that, but being as amazingly sensitive to basically everything as I was now, I could only faintly feel something that was sort of like that. My eyes were changing in some way. 

A little off in the distance to my left from where I stood, a bear's grisly growl sounded at the noise I made with my roar and breaking of the tree, probably sensing some sort of danger, as really nothing in Mother Nature could have quite caused the noise that I just had caused all on its own. 

I ran towards the bear and saw it near a bunch of bushes, next to a deep den. Since it was still winter, I had probably woken it up from it's hibernation. At seeing me, it became extremely irritated and growled, almost roared at me. But it was nothing like the noise I had made before, and being afraid didn't register anywhere in my body. I wanted a challenge now. 

I crouched and made a small sneer at the bear as -- probably sensing I was a little more threatening than the average human, and on top of being irritated -- it rose to it's hind legs and roared at me. But still, compared to me, it was like a little growl, and not quite as fearsome. I pitied the bear a little, but jumped at it. 

Instead of aiming right for the bear itself, I almost collided with it's huge paw and landed on the other side of it. It turned and made a long, low swipe for me. I dodged it and jumped for it again. This time, I jumped onto it's shoulder and clambered my way to it's back. It roared in fury, but to me it was more of a loud bark. Having had enough fighting with the bear, though it was short, I ended the little fight and killed it. 

I drained it, drinking all I could, and when I was done with the bear I flew through the forest, looking for something else. I came upon a deer and later, a cougar, more like a mountain lion, but I didn't care enough to specify which of the two it was. When it was done, I ran again, for a longer time than I had before, and circled my way back to the fallen tree. 

At the sight of the tree, I stopped running and just stood, looking at it. 

I began to calm myself down, and as I stood there, the rational part of me began to come back, and I realized what I just done. I saw that I was panting, and immediately slowed my breathing down to a normal pace; I didn't need to breathe like that! 

I quietly walked over to the fallen tree and sat on the ground, leaning my back against it. I gazed around me at the darkness that had closed in. A gentle wind began to pick up and I started to relax. 

I wondered where Esme and Edward were. I had just hunted in almost less than an hour since we've been here, and I knew I would be alright for as far as hunting went. With a bit of shame, I could tell how crazy I had just gone, throwing my little hissy fit and ended up killing a tree. 

_It was a little more than a hissy fit if you broke a tree._ I thought sarcastically, laughing sadly and bitterly to myself. 

I guess that the whole reason that had gotten me so angry at first was the fact that vampires existed. 

It wasn't the Cullen's fault, I didn't blame them; they were nice. 

But it was just that vampires themselves actually, really existed. Not only that, but I've become one! I'm mythical, I'm fake, I'm a ton of folklore and fears, and yet I'm a reality. It was ridiculous. 

_You always think that "it's never going to happen to me", I don't have to worry about that; it's never going to happen._

"And then it does." I whispered to the night. _It actually happens to you - you've become the little, tiny percentile that actually do have to deal with it._

But it's being a vampire that really gets me. I know now that maybe I'm not the only one to go through this, or something sort of like this, but really! 

My thoughts went everywhere, going mainly from my old family to my new one. I knew that I was probably just being paranoid, or making myself worry, but would the Cullens _really_ let me stay with them for longer than being here in Denali? Not only things about the Cullens, but what about my old family? How were they coping? Christmas was coming, do they even still live in the same house? In almost the seven months that I've been gone, did they move? How is my brother and sister? It was thoughts like these that made me see that I wouldn't really have any sort of peace of mind until I could somehow see them again, but that was nearly impossible. 

_And I really need to control myself better - letting my temper get the best of me like that was unacceptable._ I was glad that no one had to see that. Sure, I'm still kind of new; but I knew already that not all vampires are as "immature" or "moody" as I am because I'm a pretty fresh, new vampire. I was suddenly so mad, though, and I just lost it! And no matter what, I need to work on keeping my self control in check. Especially around others, regardless of who (or _what_) it is. No matter what happens, I need to behave. 

I was trying to figure out a way to settle my "family problems", and I realized that I was quite deep in my thoughts when Edward walked up to me. 

He stood in front of me, a few feet away from where I sat. I looked up at him. He was looking at the tree with an eyebrow raised, then he lowered it and looked at me and said, "Hey Courtney." 

"Hi Edward," I said, looking back down. "Are you finished hunting, already?" 

"I would ask you the same." he replied. He sat down next to me and I brought my legs up to my body and rested my chin on my knees. "But, yes, I am finished… Well, basically. This area is a little more populated than it was the last time we were here, and it was easy to catch something." 

I felt his gaze on me, but didn't look up. I was kind of ashamed of my behavior; even though I knew neither Edward or Esme or anyone else saw me go all crazy and lose my temper like that, I still felt like an irresponsible idiot. And though I tried to hide it, I was almost 100 sure that he could tell there was something on my mind. 

"How did you hunt? Are you finished, too?" He seemed a little surprised as he asked me. 

"Yes, I'm done. I found quite a few animals." I tried to just act normal and gave a slight smile with my reply. It didn't seem to work. We were just silent, listening to the sounds around us, and I knew that he was still trying to decipher my expression. 

I internally cringed when he eventually came right out and asked, "Are you okay?" I was hoping that we could both just move on and keep talking or something, and this was just the subject I was hoping he would avoid. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." I lied, trying to sound somewhat convincing. My light, pretend cheerfulness was empty even in my ears. 

He put his hand on my shoulder and I looked at him. His expression was soft and his eyes had this curious look in them like he genuinely cared that something was bothering me. He reminded me of a really protective, caring older brother - one that I never _truly_ had. 

Of course I loved Logan, he was my big brother and all! But even though he was always the person I could go to if I needed advice or comforting (usually, if something was wrong, he could tell the minute he walked into the same room as I was in, and he'd immediately try to help fix my problem) , Logan wasn't _always_ there. Of course he was family, but we both had different things going on in our lives, things getting crazier as life went on, and I had very rarely seen him since he went to college. And that was about three years ago now. 

"Courtney," Edward said quietly. "If there's something wrong, you can tell me." I looked at his face, trying to trust him. He was willing me to trust him with his expression, and I knew that I could, but I guess that I was still just feeling bad... feeling _weak_. And I didn't like feeling weak. 

Before I could answer, he furrowed his eyebrows a little and said, "You know, it's kind of frustrating for me not being able to hear your thoughts." 

At that, I had to laugh. It was a quiet laugh and I leaned my head back and looked at the sky as I did. 

"Seriously," he said through my laughter. I could hear a slight smile in his voice as he continued. "I can still hear your voice in my head -- that hasn't gone away -- but I either have to focus so hard to hear your thoughts that it almost hurts, or I don't hear them at all." 

My laughter died down and I sighed. 

"I'm just really worried about my family." I confessed. I glanced at his face and saw a bit of sadness and understanding in his eyes. I looked away again and continued. "It's going to be hard for me to go on like this without some sort of closure. I need to say goodbye to them in some sort of way, but I'm not sure about how I should do that." I examined my hands as I thought about what I should do. I felt Edward take his hand off of my shoulder and glanced at him from beneath my eyelashes. 

He was also examining his hands, folding them on his lap as he seemed to be thinking too. I looked at his face and then he looked back up at me. 

"You know," he started. "I know how you feel." He did? 

"You do?" I was a bit confused. What did he do about it? He was born a long time ago, too. They told me on the way up here to the other vampires' house. 

"Well, sort of." He looked back at his hands. "I don't really like to remember it, it was among my own little… 'dark ages', if you will." He looked back at my face. "I went off on my own for a time, I left Carlisle and Esme." I tilted my head to the side just a bit. Was there a special reason for why he did that? 

His expression became somewhat pleading. 

"In summary, I began to get frustrated with hunting only animals like Carlisle and Esme instead of doing… what vampires _really_ hunt….. So I eventually left them and went off on my own for a while." 

I tried to listen quietly, my attention all on him. I could tell that as he told me this, it was a little uncomfortable for him to let me know what he did. 

"I pretty much did go astray from the lifestyle I had started out with, but I hunted only those who posed danger to others." He paused and looked at my face to gauge my expression. I wasn't quite sure what he saw -- I was trying not to look prejudiced or anything; I wasn't! -- but he talked a bit quicker, trying to explain. 

"I was a newborn then, new to this life, and I just wanted to see what it was like to be a normal vampire. I didn't hurt anyone that was innocent; with the advantages I have," he tapped his forehead. "I could tell whether or not my prey was someone who could go on living a good life, and someone who wasn't exactly the nicest person you would meet." He kept his eyes on my face, watching me. 

"So," I started. "You only went after the bad type of people?" He nodded. "Oh." 

I looked down. Even though I wasn't going to do anything like leaving the Cullens and go off on my own, I knew what Edward was talking about. And I was grateful that he would share something like that with me. I knew that it was always kind of hard to admit mistakes and weaknesses you had, and it must be even harder for Edward, sort of like me and my stupid little hissy fits. 

"I _did_ come back to them, though; I felt bad for what I had done and decided to just let nature take it's course." He paused. "Well, as natural as vampires get." I looked at him and he smiled his crooked smile at me. "You know what I mean." He said. I returned a smile and leaned back against the tree. I extended my legs out on the ground in front of me and said, 

"Thanks Edward. I know that it was probably hard for you to tell me that. So just… thanks." Then I glanced at the tree we were sitting against and so did he. 

I decided to change the subject and said, "Well, I guess that I should tell you that I was the one to break the tree," I looked at his face and he gave me a small, teasing smile. I gave him a half-serious scowl. "I feel bad for doing it, I didn't mean to! It was just in the way or… something!" I briefly recalled my semi-karate chop thingy that resulted in hitting the tree. While I was talking, he had begun to laugh. I looked at him, feeling a little irritated. I really felt bad for getting all mad and everything, and I was hoping that after he gave me his little confessional, he wouldn't laugh at me for telling him about my tantrum, though immature as it may have been. I really did feel kind of stupid about it! 

"Why are you laughing?" I asked him, not hiding my irritation. For some reason I felt even more like a dork as he kept laughing. 

"Nothing, nothing." He said, trying to stop. "It's just," he broke out into another little peal of laughter. He calmed down a little and said, "It's just that when _I_ got mad, I went off on my own -- I was about as young a vampire as you are now -- and I was a complete rebel," He suddenly became serious. Sometimes he had weird mood swings. "Not hunting animals like I should have been. Of course when I came back I felt bad," Then his lightheartedness came back a little and he continued. "But when _you_ got mad just now, you broke a tree and felt bad for _that."_ He laughed some more. 

I didn't see what he was getting at. I scowled. "What are you saying?" I asked, more irritated than before. 

"I guess I'm just saying that… we're 'vegetarian' because we felt bad for the things we hunted, and you do too, pretty much," He looked at me and I nodded my head, agreeing with him and urging him to go on. "But you broke this huge tree, and even though you truly didn't mean to, you're just feeling a lot of remorse for it, I guess." I nodded in understanding. It was true; I knew what he meant now. But why was that funny? Oh well, whatever, Edward can be a dork if he wants to…. Though it was hard for me to imagine this guy sitting next to me in any way as a dork. It just wasn't… Edward. 

"I guess I'm just saying that you're kind and sympathetic." He said. "Even though it was a tree." He smiled sarcastically at me. "Plus, I hope that I never make you mad; I wouldn't want to end up like the tree." He smirked at me and I gave him a playful shove. 

"Well, let's go find Esme if we're done." I said. 

"I think that we should hunt for a just little longer and then go home. Just in case." He told me, standing up. He offered me his hand and I took it. He pulled me up and added, "And Courtney," he stood closer to me than he usually did, but kept talking. "If you want to go see your family again, know that I support you. And I want you to be careful." 

I questioned him with my eyes, but he just gave a shrug and a smile and said, "Just as a precaution." 

* * *

**Author's note: Ello! Sorry for the wait. I hope you liked this chap (it was my longest one so far!). And i hope it wasn't too sappy; she's just kind of trying to 'move on'. You know how Edward said that it took him a while to come to terms with what he was? Yeah, I'm just kind of trying to speed up the process and get to the parts that i can't wait to write!! Yay! **

**And Happy Spring Break! I hope you have fun! (Or at least that it's better than mine.) And just so you know, it's pretty much ridiculous how happy I am when I get even **_**two**_** reviews! They make me so amazingly happy that it's kind of sad... Anyways, please review! **

**-ELS**


End file.
